Wannabe media barons outed in UK local telly bid list

Ofcom has published the list of organisations bidding to run Local TV stations in the UK. The list of those who want to operate the actual broadcast equipment is much shorter. Fifty-seven companies have bid for franchises that will permit them to transmit homegrown telly in White Space - pockets of unused radio frequencies …

[Anonymous Coward]

How long

Anyone want to guess how long the winners will take to go bust? Or if all of the winners will actually get to air?

Or indeed when the original owners decide to bail after launch with fat pay cheques. leaving the station in the hands of new owners under whom the entire thing goes downhill and finally goes bust?

Pessimistic? You only need to look at the history of small scale local TV or indeed local radio in this country to see the same pattern repeating itself again and again.

[Rob]

Re: How long

Yeah, I'm filled with confidence when some of these bidders are using an aol or gmail accounts as a point of contact, extremely professional.

[Only me!]

Metro8

Come on....you know that is going to a court near you soon!!!!!!

If M$ did not have the money to fend off a Metro case, these lot certainly will not.

[Code Monkey]

How much more low quality TV do we actually need?

[Only me!]

More choice

The more choice the "better" seems to be the moto!!!

Just stick to BCC1, 2, 3, 4, News, a bit of C4 and ITV4 for the cycling!

If you need more TV than that, you can go on the local "Baby Bro" reality programme coming to a place near you.

[Code Monkey]

"Baby Bro"

That's it. I'm smashing the telly with a hammer as soon as I get in tonight.

[JDX]

Low quality genuine local stuff might be OK but how they'd fill a channel all day I've no idea.

[Gav]

Low Quality

Exactly. If the channel has good solid local coverage, it doesn't need flashy graphics, virtual studios and over-paid celeb presenters.

But my biggest fear is TV studios over-run with Media Studies students on internships.

[Code Monkey]

Re: Low Quality

"But my biggest fear is TV studios over-run with Media Studies students on internships."

Aren't they all already busy running BBC Three?

[John Brown (no body)]

but how they'd fill a channel all day I've no idea.

From what I've seen/heard on the news, they are likely to only be producing ~1hr per day. Not sure how that is going to be a financially rewarding business model. Maybe it's only 1hr of "local" production.

[I ain't Spartacus]

That's the idea. They'll produce local news and stuff. Maybe give space to local organisations, who can give them free content. The rest will be repeats, archive (Beeb perhaps?), or stuff commissioned by them all collectively.

[Alan 6]

Are these Local TV channels going to stay local, or are they going to be like a lot of the "local" commercial radio stations, who are owned by the same company, and broadcast the same mix of inane chatter and One Direction nationwide for much of the day, and just have local news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Local. But give it 4 or 5 years and you can bet they'll be cap in hand to Ofcom, pleading poverty and wanting to network shows.

Which is what happened with local radio. Indeed I believe this very day Global have applied to cut back local programming on the former Atlantic FM in Cornwall, a station they absorbed a few months back into their Heart network. They'd also already managed to get the definition of "local programming" changed so it also includes stuff produce at the neighbouring station in Devon.

All the while the mates of Jezza Hunt get richer and the local media landscape looks poorer. Believe me, this new local TV thing may be being sold to be a good thing, but the long term reality is that it will just make some people quite rich and when they jump ship it will all go down the pan.

[Test Man]

"Local. But give it 4 or 5 years and you can bet they'll be cap in hand to Ofcom, pleading poverty and wanting to network shows."

A bit like ITV then.

In fact, why are they reinventing the wheel? Just MAKE ITV deliver on its contractual obligations.

[skipper]

Channel 6 is on its way

The LondonTV service will be run by an unsubtly called Channel 6. No expectation of going national there then

[LinkOfHyrule]

YourTV, Metro8, Made In

Rubbishest TV company names ever -

YourTV - just plain shit

Metro8 - wtf seriously! What is this, a channel run by Microsoft to promote Windows or something!

Made In - I take it each channel will be known as "Made In Swindon", "Made In London" etc - probably best to just call them all "Made in Haste" or "Made Impossible to make any money due this whole thing being a shite idea"

[kyza]

So we can expect live broadcasts from the following events:

http://apiln.blogspot.co.uk/

I did see an exciting story about a tree that had fallen across a public footpath, but had been successfully cleared away by the local council, the other day.

There's a reason local newspapers aren't viable to print anymore.

[B-D]

Set up all the broadcasters!!!

But where on earth is all the content going to magically appear from?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Set up all the broadcasters!!!

Local ....lets look at that word.

Plymouth TV, also Plymouth in USA, Plymouth in Australia....so they can reshow US and reg grundy sitcoms and still be within the framework of "Local"

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do we even need local TV to be broadcast? why can't people just use internet streaming if they want a local station? that is what's needed a publicly sponsored IPTV standard with EPG and decent integration into TV's

[GitMeMyShootinIrons]

Made in...

My Shed.

[Will Godfrey]

I already have a first class local news service. She lives 4 doors up the road and doesn't miss a thing.

[John Styles]

Well

One of the Oxford ones seems to have a link to a cybersquatted domain, and the other one, demonstrating its commitment to local media, has a website designed and administered from New Zealand.

[Stephen 24]

Bristol

"Bristol ... didn't attract the attention of the chains" seems to be incorrect - it appears to be part of the "Made in" chain.