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| Bids have been submittted for all of Wales' "Local TV" stations. Schwing. (Pic : dvdactive.com) |
The first city-based local TV stations were launched on Freeview in the UK towards the end of 2013. One of the first was Hull and Grimsby-based Estuary TV, and local TV is coming to Wales this year.
As I mentioned last September (Broadcasting Wales IV – Wales on Television), the idea is that local TV would provide a commercial means by which local programming and news could establish itself. That's in the light of cutbacks to such programming on existing commercial broadcasters like ITV. It'll be part-backed by £25million in licence fee funds, in addition to advertisements.
I quite like the idea, though I have concerns about the long-term viability of local TV stations. Many previous "restricted service licence" stations in the UK - including the likes of Capital TV in Cardiff, or Channel M in Manchester - have closed down having not made much of an impact.
Wales was divided into four (AFAIK) local TV areas through which Ofcom would issue licences. Made in Cardiff won the licence for the Cardiff area and is due to launch services soon. BBC Wales reported last week that bids have been submitted to Ofcom for the other three Welsh licences, after initially attracting little interest.
Party Time! Excellent!
1. Cardiff Bid
Made in Cardiff will broadcast from the Wenvoe transmitter, covering Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Newport, Bridgend and will probably be picked up in parts of the south Wales Valleys. Locally-produced news is said to be at the heart of programming, but they also intend to cover sports in the area other than football and rugby.
There'll be programming dedicated to the Cardiff cultural scene; including nightlife, events and music. A weekly arts programme called "Cool Cymru" will be in Welsh with English subtitles. "Cardiff Talks" will focus on civic life and local politics, with a panel discussion. There'll be two 30 minute news programmes each weekday night and hourly programmes at the weekend.
The original launch date was March 1st 2013, but it's been pushed back to this year, though the exact date remains unclear.
2. Swansea Bids
The Swansea station would broadcast from the Kilvey Hill transmitter, covering Swansea, parts of Neath Port Talbot and Llanelli.
By the third year they intend to broadcast up to 25 hours of local programming a week. News would be a rolling 15-minute bulletin, with additional 15 minute bulletins at lunchtime and a hour-long local news programme in the evening. They also plan to introduce programming specifically aimed at Welsh learners, while some news and features would be in Welsh (unspecified). The target date for launch is 1st September 2014.
News would consist mainly of a rolling RSS feed, with more formal 30 minute and 15 minute bulletins in the evening. This RSS feed makes up most of the daily schedule, with "live" programmes shown during evenings only. They intend to host a 90-minute sports phone-in on Sunday mornings. "A Week Ahead" and "A Week in Swansea" will be their flagship current affairs programmes.
Love Swansea say they want a specific science and business feature show, perhaps in association with Swansea University, and a show called "Hymns and Arias" will feature local church services. Citizen journalists will be provided with training and equipment to bring them stories. Again, the target launch date is 1st September 2014.
Mold Bids
They say it'll "not be viable to create enough programmes locally to fill content", so most of the schedule is identical to Bay TV Liverpool, with a few half-hourly opt-outs per day, mainly local arts and cultural programming. They say their sports focus will be on the Liverpool and Manchester football clubs, because "in general, football supporters in North Wales are more interested in the success and failures" of those clubs, though they'll include coverage of local sports teams, like Wrexham.
Current affairs will feature during the news programmes. There's also a commitment to running 30 minutes of Welsh language programming a week, and a commitment to providing Welsh-language subtitles and a bilingual website. The prospective launch date would be 1st October 2014.
Serch TV would run from 7am-11pm seven days a week. Most of the programming consists of local news updates, with opt outs for local cultural shows. There are two political shows, "One Voice" - which I presume is a panel show - and "Local Views Debate". It'll also include some non-local programming bought from the rest of the UK.
The studios will be based in Flintshire, but the station will use facilities at Glyndwr University and in Chester. They say they'll consider programming in other languages, with English subtitles, "according to market demand". The prospective launch date would be 1st December 2014.
Bangor Bid
The service is identical to Bay TV Clwyd, listed above, except broadcasting (presumably) from the Llanddona transmitter on Ynys Môn.
How local will your local TV station be?
Both Swansea bids are based in Swansea. With the exception of Serch TV, the north Wales bids are franchises of the Liverpool-based Bay TV, which won the bid for the Liverpool local TV service in February 2013.
It looks like the south of Wales will have genuinely local TV stations, but the north is going to get short-changed. If Bay TV win both bids, the North Walian stations will be colonial acquisitions of the Scouse Empire. "We're not worthy", indeed.
It's highly likely Bay TV Liverpool submitted bids for the the Mold and Bangor licences to make their Liverpool offer look more attractive to advertisers due to the larger catchment area. Saying it wouldn't be viable to create enough local content for north Wales kind of undermines the whole point of local TV.
You can understand why these licences are being hoovered up by a handful of bigger companies, with local stations acting as franchises. I imagine it would be nigh on impossible for a stand-alone local TV station to be commercially viable, while centralising certain aspects – like advertising and programme purchasing – would create an economy of scale. Made in Cardiff is a subsidiary of London-based Made TV, for example.
Love Swansea and Serch TV sound more like social enterprises than commercial stations. The prospect of several hours of RSS feed (in the case of Love Swansea) doesn't sound promising, but it's practical.
At least they're based locally and headed up by locals, providing local job and training opportunities – though it seems across Wales only 50-60 full-time jobs would be created.
That's a shame, because I believed the UK Government and Ofcom were on to something here, especially if it developed into a US-style "public access" service.
As I mentioned last September (Broadcasting Wales IV – Wales on Television), the idea is that local TV would provide a commercial means by which local programming and news could establish itself. That's in the light of cutbacks to such programming on existing commercial broadcasters like ITV. It'll be part-backed by £25million in licence fee funds, in addition to advertisements.
I quite like the idea, though I have concerns about the long-term viability of local TV stations. Many previous "restricted service licence" stations in the UK - including the likes of Capital TV in Cardiff, or Channel M in Manchester - have closed down having not made much of an impact.
Wales was divided into four (AFAIK) local TV areas through which Ofcom would issue licences. Made in Cardiff won the licence for the Cardiff area and is due to launch services soon. BBC Wales reported last week that bids have been submitted to Ofcom for the other three Welsh licences, after initially attracting little interest.
Party Time! Excellent!
1. Cardiff Bid
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| Made in Cardiff was the first successful local TV bid in Wales. (recombu.com) |
- Made in Cardiff (licence awarded Sept. 2012)
- Indicative schedule (pdf)
Made in Cardiff will broadcast from the Wenvoe transmitter, covering Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan, Newport, Bridgend and will probably be picked up in parts of the south Wales Valleys. Locally-produced news is said to be at the heart of programming, but they also intend to cover sports in the area other than football and rugby.
There'll be programming dedicated to the Cardiff cultural scene; including nightlife, events and music. A weekly arts programme called "Cool Cymru" will be in Welsh with English subtitles. "Cardiff Talks" will focus on civic life and local politics, with a panel discussion. There'll be two 30 minute news programmes each weekday night and hourly programmes at the weekend.
The original launch date was March 1st 2013, but it's been pushed back to this year, though the exact date remains unclear.
2. Swansea Bids
The Swansea station would broadcast from the Kilvey Hill transmitter, covering Swansea, parts of Neath Port Talbot and Llanelli.
- Bay TV Swansea
- No indicative schedule provided.
By the third year they intend to broadcast up to 25 hours of local programming a week. News would be a rolling 15-minute bulletin, with additional 15 minute bulletins at lunchtime and a hour-long local news programme in the evening. They also plan to introduce programming specifically aimed at Welsh learners, while some news and features would be in Welsh (unspecified). The target date for launch is 1st September 2014.
- Love Swansea
- Indicative schedule (pdf)
News would consist mainly of a rolling RSS feed, with more formal 30 minute and 15 minute bulletins in the evening. This RSS feed makes up most of the daily schedule, with "live" programmes shown during evenings only. They intend to host a 90-minute sports phone-in on Sunday mornings. "A Week Ahead" and "A Week in Swansea" will be their flagship current affairs programmes.
Love Swansea say they want a specific science and business feature show, perhaps in association with Swansea University, and a show called "Hymns and Arias" will feature local church services. Citizen journalists will be provided with training and equipment to bring them stories. Again, the target launch date is 1st September 2014.
Mold Bids
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| Bay TV Liverpool are bidding for both north Wales licences. (Pic : digitalspy.co.uk) |
- Bay TV Clwyd (subsidiary of Bay TV Liverpool)
- Indicative schedule (pdf)
They say it'll "not be viable to create enough programmes locally to fill content", so most of the schedule is identical to Bay TV Liverpool, with a few half-hourly opt-outs per day, mainly local arts and cultural programming. They say their sports focus will be on the Liverpool and Manchester football clubs, because "in general, football supporters in North Wales are more interested in the success and failures" of those clubs, though they'll include coverage of local sports teams, like Wrexham.
Current affairs will feature during the news programmes. There's also a commitment to running 30 minutes of Welsh language programming a week, and a commitment to providing Welsh-language subtitles and a bilingual website. The prospective launch date would be 1st October 2014.
- Serch TV Mold
- Indicative schedule (pdf)
Serch TV would run from 7am-11pm seven days a week. Most of the programming consists of local news updates, with opt outs for local cultural shows. There are two political shows, "One Voice" - which I presume is a panel show - and "Local Views Debate". It'll also include some non-local programming bought from the rest of the UK.
The studios will be based in Flintshire, but the station will use facilities at Glyndwr University and in Chester. They say they'll consider programming in other languages, with English subtitles, "according to market demand". The prospective launch date would be 1st December 2014.
Bangor Bid
- Bay TV Gwynedd (subsidiary of Bay TV Liverpool)
- Indicative schedule (pdf)
The service is identical to Bay TV Clwyd, listed above, except broadcasting (presumably) from the Llanddona transmitter on Ynys Môn.
How local will your local TV station be?
Both Swansea bids are based in Swansea. With the exception of Serch TV, the north Wales bids are franchises of the Liverpool-based Bay TV, which won the bid for the Liverpool local TV service in February 2013.
It looks like the south of Wales will have genuinely local TV stations, but the north is going to get short-changed. If Bay TV win both bids, the North Walian stations will be colonial acquisitions of the Scouse Empire. "We're not worthy", indeed.
It's highly likely Bay TV Liverpool submitted bids for the the Mold and Bangor licences to make their Liverpool offer look more attractive to advertisers due to the larger catchment area. Saying it wouldn't be viable to create enough local content for north Wales kind of undermines the whole point of local TV.
You can understand why these licences are being hoovered up by a handful of bigger companies, with local stations acting as franchises. I imagine it would be nigh on impossible for a stand-alone local TV station to be commercially viable, while centralising certain aspects – like advertising and programme purchasing – would create an economy of scale. Made in Cardiff is a subsidiary of London-based Made TV, for example.
Love Swansea and Serch TV sound more like social enterprises than commercial stations. The prospect of several hours of RSS feed (in the case of Love Swansea) doesn't sound promising, but it's practical.
At least they're based locally and headed up by locals, providing local job and training opportunities – though it seems across Wales only 50-60 full-time jobs would be created.
That's a shame, because I believed the UK Government and Ofcom were on to something here, especially if it developed into a US-style "public access" service.
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