back to article Ofcom anoints broadcaster: Local TV is nearly here

New local TV services will be launching later this year, and Comux - the non-profit cooperative which promised to plough profits back into local TV - will manage the broadcasting. That puts Comux in line for £25m in BBC cash, beating bids from Avanti, the Community Media Association and the BBC itself for the right to run the …

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  1. pavsmith

    I've already got 15 channels of sh*t on the TV to choose from...

    I can hardly, hardly wait. Given the despair I get flicking through my cable TV guide at night trying to find something that's either interesting or not repeated a million times, I can't see what content they're going to have on these channels that will make me want to turn them on. Community groups with their own shows? If I was interested I'd have joined their group already. Local sports? Good idea, I won't have to turn up to the ground any more - guess that'll help their revenues.

    Having said that I must say that I really do miss the old "infinite repeat" shows that are no longer on. I wonder what the rights to Gilligan's Island cost these days?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I've already got 15 channels of sh*t on the TV to choose from...

      How fortunate you are. I have 207 channels of crap.

  2. AndrueC Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    > The UK government is adamant that we need, and want, local TV stations - to "build communities" as well

    > as to make money

    Make money? How? No-one will want to watch. No-one will want to advertise on them. They are an anachronism. All that's needed is a decent local web portal.

  3. Great Bu

    Bring back topless darts !

    And the news bunny.

    1. Tony Humphreys
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Bring back topless darts !

      and Italian Stripping Housewives!

    2. Peter Stone
      Happy

      Re: Bring back topless darts !

      Don't forget the weather forecast in Norwegian/Swedish :)

  4. Mattjimf
    Facepalm

    Seem to remember something like this before

    Didn't we have this before, when ITV were separate regions and broadcast local programs as well as the national fare?

    Didn't they all get swallowed up by a few regions so that ultimately we now only have 3-4 ITV companies.

    So how is this not going to end up the same?

    1. PrivateCitizen
      WTF?

      Re: Seem to remember something like this before

      I was wondering that - this seems to be reinventing the 1980s.

    2. Neil Barnes Silver badge

      So how is this not going to end up the same?

      No problem. It won't last long enough to be conglomerated.

      Bloody stupid idea from start to finish. On the one hand the Gummint[tm] is proclaiming the need for digital networks in a connected age and on the other it wants to connect local communities.

      Meh.

      1. pavsmith

        Re: So how is this not going to end up the same?

        No, but this is all the BIG SOCIETY stuff in action and it'll transform local communities... oh... hang on... has BS been deprecated?

        1. AndrueC Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: So how is this not going to end up the same?

          Politicians will never deprecate BS.

          Oh wait, you mean Big Society..

          :)

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
          Facepalm

          Re: So how is this not going to end up the same?

          oh... hang on... has BS been defecated?

          fixed that for you.

    3. Test Man
      Thumb Up

      Re: Seem to remember something like this before

      "Mattjimf" - that's exactly what I said the last time there was an article on this!

      I can't see it working, not because of the aforementioned merge between TV companies, but the landscape has changed and IMO there isn't a market for local TV any more.

    4. Da Weezil
      FAIL

      Re: Seem to remember something like this before

      Yep Independent TV went that way as did Independent radio. Its just a way of establishing the building blocks of a new media empire fr one of their cash rich friends who wants to break into broadcasting.

      We need quality output - not more dross made on a shoe-string.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tedium

    So, with Sky / Virgin struggling to fill hundreds of channels with 24 hour programming, it seems sensible to allow other stations to try and provide even more content?

    Does anyone actually think local channels will produce things worth watching? (Serious question, not a sarcastic one trying to imply the answer is automatically no).

    Is there a need for more viewer choice and, if UK regions can come up with good quality programming, why is so much shown on TV an American import (even the adverts are heavily dubbed)?

  6. Adam Trickett
    Meh

    A few hours a week perhaps?

    I can see the value of a few hours a week of extra local news, and other local programming. I can't see it filling a whole channel though. The problem is that it is expensive and I can't see it being self funded from advertising alone - which means tax money needs to be supplied in.

    I can't see why with all their channels of repeats the Beeb and ITV can't find a bit more space for extended local programming?

    1. Test Man
      Thumb Up

      Re: A few hours a week perhaps?

      The problem is ITV plc don't want local programming on their channels any more, they've been trying to get out of their obligations for years.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Local TV, really?

    Local news is bad enough. Cat stuck up tree, or granny receives award for serving 50,000th cuppa at community centre.

    No one will watch it. Bloody Cameron and his ilk. Need shot.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Full Freeview lineup would be nice first.

    Vast swathes of the country can't even get the full UK Freeview channel lineup, shouldn't that be a priority first?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    UKTV on Freesat...

    http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/39304

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about ITV? Split up the existing franchises that all seem to have assimilated!

    1. Test Man
      Thumb Up

      The franchises are still there, it's just that all but three are held by ITV plc.

      It's too late now, there's no way removing the franchises from ITV plc and giving it to an independent company will work these days, not especially when you have the likes of Sky, etc. with lots of money and multiple channels. The era of many different independent networked broadcasters are long gone.

  11. Mark Wilson

    How can I watch it?

    When we brought our new house, we knew we would get Satelite TV so we didn't bother fitting an aerial and I still see no point in doing so. How many others will go the same route I wonder and as existing aerials get blown down in storms, will they really get replaced? I know I could get freeview through one but for the one or two channels I can't get on freesat, it barely seems worthwhile.

    So the potential audience for these channels is going to get smaller and smaller as less people have the capability to receive their broadcasts. Especially if the quality of their output is anything like I experienced when living in Oxford which for years had a local tv channel which I never watched.

    1. Marlons

      Re: How can I watch it?

      Ahh yes, "SixTV" running on Analogue Ch47 I remember. Reception was terrible, content was worse.

      Local 'TV' company OxBox TV are running from Witney, I read they didn't bother trying to get access to this opportunity and web for IPTV only. Seems to be 1) the future and 2) cheap to run compare to 'proper' broadcasting.

  12. Mystic Megabyte
    FAIL

    I don't like adverts

    We have a local radio station that broadcasts non-stop drivel. How is a local TV station going to be any different?

    I won't be watching it anyway, I don't have a TV.

  13. Alfie
    Mushroom

    Why another London channel?

    == Local TV channel franchises have been awarded over the last few months,

    == though we're still waiting for the one that matters: London.

    In what way is it important for London to have a local channel? Most of the national channels broadcast from London so they already have a London bias.

    1. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Why another London channel?

      The reason London is interesting is that if London can't make money from Local TV then nowhere can.

      The London franchise covers the largest number of people, and is the most contested, so its the business (if not the channel) to watch.

      Bill.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Big Brother

      Re: Why another London channel?

      Have you noticed lately how often a BBC program, tv and/or radio, is announced as being from Salford these days? Or that interviews with "experts" are from Manchester or Salford Uni? Even voxpops on the "street" are in the Trafford Centre.

      I would suggest that the BBC are not especially London centric, just too lazy to travel too far from home base, wherever that happens to be.

  14. typeo

    If the quality of the TV channel programming is anything like the local radio stations that have sprung up then it will be a failure. Even the local BBC news struggle to fill their slot each evening and that's covering multiple regions, everyday seems like a slow news day.

  15. auburnman

    Aside from the obvious trainwreck of obsolete pointlessness this is going to be, has anyone ever heard their local accent on telly? Without immediately cringing and changing the channel?

  16. mike2R

    Television you say?

    I remember them.

  17. Da Weezil
    Thumb Down

    Thankfully we are not getting it here - the local (county) radio station is DIRE, and a waste of spectrum - I cant see local TV being much different. Its not like they are making anything decent now. Its a waste of money and resource.

  18. Clyde

    Doesn't seem "local" to me

    I can't comment on the proposals for south of the border, but the proposals in Scotland are for areas which are anything but "local". One channel for the whole greater Glasgow area - half the country's population. And the figures I heard for advertising are certainly not what any "local" business could justify.

    I've got to say this - keep the BBC well out of this area. They don't do decent "local". It's all London oriented stuff with a bit of parochial cat-up-a-tree and football tacked on.

    Even given that most urban areas in the US have cable TV, they have genuinely local based TV stations. Mind you their adverts are dire, local karaoke star sings about a used car lot !! But it can be done, it doesn't have to take millions and millions to set up.

    Get a good charismatic presenter, make quality programmes, do lots of proper quality local travel news and weather, and sound positive. Keep advertising affordable, and get local businesses involved.

    Just don't go down the route that "the local High Street" has - which is just rows of the same shops you see in every town across the country.

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