Local Freeview for all

Some MPs are demanding local public service television

^{Published on 19th March 2008 at 07:03 by Brian Butterworth}
In Parliament, MP Ian Stuart has put down an early day motion stating that he:

"... congratulates Ofcom in finding a means to deliver local television to every household across the UK on Freeview; and looks to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to introduce a licence for the provision of local public service television during the rollout of digital switchover."

This is backed by a group, United for Local Television, who are demanding that at switchover that Freeview channel 6 be allocated to a local channel with local news, local programming and local advertising.

Section 244 of the Communications Act 2003 gives the Culture Secretary the ability to enact a Local Digital Television Order which would roll out local TV services across the UK.

Who are United for Local Television?

Capital TV, MATV, SIX TV, York TV, Norwich TV, EBS Newmedia, Northern Visions/NvTv, Association of Community Television Operators (ACTO), Institute of Local Television, Mimac-Rushes, Fife and Media Access Projects Scotland, Peter Williams Television, Rural Media Company, West Midlands, Somerset Film, Southwark TV & Community TV Trust, Station House Media Unit, Aberdeen.

Is this a good idea?

There are a number of problems with this proposal. Firstly, Ofcom owns no bandwidth to allocate to such a selection of channels.

It would be hard to cheaply replicate such channels on alternative platforms such as digital satellite and cable. Also, "local" is a bit of a problem term, as the area covered by transmitters do not follow political boundaries, but geographical ones.

Quite where the money for such a network of channels will come from is unclear, given that ITV1 is cut costs by removing a similar provision from their channel.

InView EPG death - boxes
Sheffield and Harborne transmitter retunes
Two new national Freeview slots permitted
Ten Million Freeview homes
Two new Freeview channels - almost everywhere

What connections are used from set top box to TV (such as SCART) ?
Can I use a Freeview box if there is no SCART connector on my TV?
Why has my widescreen TV just made everyone look fat?
My TV is NICAM, does that mean I have digital TV?
Are all Widescreen TVs digital?

Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Further to your article, MiMAC-Rushes C.I.C. got tired of waiting on the debate and technicalities of 'Local TV' and have gone ahead and launched their own TV station called Channel-Fife.TV
Instead of waiting on broadcast space being allocated, the Channel-Fife.tv project is being broadcast via the internet as a Web Broadcast TV station. While it may lack the polish of a terrestrial broadcast station, the first experimental broadcasts where made for free with the co-operation of MiMAC-Rushes, Art Attack Films and Colmar Video.

Posted by Gavin (1 post) on Sunday 8 February 2009 11:52AM