Local TV

[Brekkie]

Seems it only takes three years of failing to meet quotas to face the prospect of a possible future sanction - maybe.

https://twitter.com/a516digital/status/1...4125888521

Not sure how KMTV, who put out an hour of news plus local programming most nights, can be deemed a failure yet That's TV churning out 10 minutes a day, or London Live who went a year with no news, not be.

[Emily Moore]

Seems it only takes three years of failing to meet quotas to face the prospect of a possible future sanction - maybe.

https://twitter.com/a516digital/status/1...4125888521

Not sure how KMTV, who put out an hour of news plus local programming most nights, can be deemed a failure yet That's TV churning out 10 minutes a day, or London Live who went a year with no news, not be.

I've never seen KMTV, but an awful lot of Sheffield Live is a feed of their radio station (which itself is fairly variable in terms of whether there's a show or an automated music loop) with local photographs, a clock and weather making up the visual content. For years, many of the photographs were credited on-screen to the questionably named "Mr F. Isteur". I don't know if this photo loop and radio feed counts as original local programming, but if That's TV's music videos with on-screen info counts as "local news", then I don't see why not.

The problem with the Ofcom reprimand is that it basically sanctions the TV operators for not going to Ofcom to request a reduction in local programming. Principled operators who have attempted to stick within their original licence are penalised, while those operators who have said "okay Ofcom, we're going to relay CBS Bollocks or something for 23.5 hours a day" have been able to do whatever they want.

[London Lite]

KMTV are still putting out a half decent news programme despite the pandemic. As mentioned, they're still providing more local hours per day than That's TV and Local TV Ltd of which one has become a cheap and nasty music video channel, while the other simulcasts a CBS channel for the bulk of the day.

[Jon]

I wonder if they’re just being penalised because unlike ‘That’s TV’, they haven’t put in a load of format changes because they actually have the intention of delivering the content.*

*just realised the above poster made that point better than me.

[Whataday]

I don't really see the logic in launching it unless they're about to bail on local TV. Presumably the days of the BBC bankrolling it by paying for largely unusable footage are over.

BBC funding stopped years ago. That's what caused such a rapid decline in Made TV's quality.

[dvboy]

London Live is showing some tennis next weekend.
Three months after it happened.
Semi finals of the WTA 125 event that took place in Bol back in June.

[Brekkie]

BoI?

Didn't even realise the WTA went down to 125 - thought 250 was the lowest level of tournament.

If it were a proper local channel there must be dozens of London leagues with events that could be covered - not sure any would justify week in, week out, coverage, but finals of events scattered throughout the year would certainly tick the local box.

[dvboy]

BoI?

Didn't even realise the WTA went down to 125 - thought 250 was the lowest level of tournament.

If it were a proper local channel there must be dozens of London leagues with events that could be covered - not sure any would justify week in, week out, coverage, but finals of events scattered throughout the year would certainly tick the local box.

Bol is in Croatia

WTA 125 is the WTA's sort-of equivalent to the ATP Challenger Tour. It doesn't count as part of the WTA Tour and is almost forgotten about with no official broadcast/streaming platform of its own (unlike the ATP Challenger tour which does)

As far as domestic tennis goes, the LTA streams various events on its own social media, now and then. There is also the UK Pro League which gets coverage on BT Sport Extra but I doubt it gets many viewers. There haven't been any ITF level events, the third tier below Challenger, in the UK since 2019, but they will return next year.

[Brekkie]

Oh, so it's not even an event in London, and from what I can see not even any Brits playing. Baffling.

[Neil Jones]

Oh, so it's not even an event in London, and from what I can see not even any Brits playing. Baffling.

Big Centre TV showed ice hockey on their opening night. Admittedly it was a Midlands derby that match, albeit between a team from Solihull and Coventry. But it had happened three weeks previously. So London Live showing three month old tennis doesn't really surprise me.

[Brekkie]

I see now that That's TV Gold, and hence I assume the local channels, has a more varied schedule than just 80s music with classic comedy (Tommy Cooper, Kenny Everett, Carry On etc.) and Documentaries, along with the 80s music and teleshopping. For a "classic" channel that schedule looks half decent to be fair. For a "local" channel though its still just 10 minutes of news at 6pm.

Baffles me how OFCOM are permitting that - even a 10-15 minute loop repeated for an hour, ideally not in the 6pm hour versus the regional news on BBC/ITV, would at least look like they're maintaining some pretence there is still a local element.

[Jon]

That’s TV Gold has also popped up on Freesat in recent weeks.

[Neil Jones]

I see now that That's TV Gold, and hence I assume the local channels, has a more varied schedule than just 80s music with classic comedy (Tommy Cooper, Kenny Everett, Carry On etc.) and Documentaries, along with the 80s music and teleshopping. For a "classic" channel that schedule looks half decent to be fair. For a "local" channel though its still just 10 minutes of news at 6pm.

Baffles me how OFCOM are permitting that - even a 10-15 minute loop repeated for an hour, ideally not in the 6pm hour versus the regional news on BBC/ITV, would at least look like they're maintaining some pretence there is still a local element.

Well in fairness Big Centre TV when it launched tried to be ATV/Central in new packaging, so doing the whole throwback thing isn't new.

But yes, I wouldn't be surprised if Ofcom are doing a lot of looking the other way, and any guise of "local" on any service is limited to, well, peanuts basically. If its not 80s throwbacks its channel simulcasts. I'm pretty sure local TV is required to run x hours of original programming a week, but I'm not exactly sure how rebroadcasting CBS Reality all day meets this.

[commseng]

I see that OFCOM have agreed that That's TV can operate from just 5 studio bases -
Glasgow, Manchester, Norwich, Reading and Swansea.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/p...ats-TV.pdf

[Emily Moore]

I see that OFCOM have agreed that That's TV can operate from just 5 studio bases -
Glasgow, Manchester, Norwich, Reading and Swansea.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/p...ats-TV.pdf

That's TV's request makes a lot of sense - technology has moved on, and studios in each local area are an expensive luxury for a small business when remote contributions are possible. However, I'm surprised that Ofcom believe the story about "saving money on studios to spend on local journalists" when it comes from Dan Cass, an individual who doesn't exactly have a track record of investing in local journalism on his licences.

In six months, he'll pick one site and say it can all be done from there, and another request will go to Ofcom. The amount of local news and content on the That's channels will not improve.