Time unlock the potential of Community Television

A decade ago, a plan for new local TV channels to provide "a new voice for local communities" was set out by the government.

In 2011 the then Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt unveiled plans to launch new local TV channels devoted to local news and content. It was an initiative to deliver his ambition for a network of local TV services, intended to offer communities a “new voice” and provide directly relevant personal perspectives.

Since they launched, the local identities and ambitions of many have eroded and many have vanished in a raft of takeovers and changes to license obligations eroding the original concept and aims of the local channels.

Many now are controlled by one of two companies and local content is a token few minutes of poor quality “news” content delivered from a centralised regional network control centre.

2011 was the year of local empowerment ambitions of the government of the day that also include the localism act of 2011. The aim and ambition of "a new voice for local communities" that was part of the local tv channel revolution the Culture secretary had ambitions to be sparked sadly failed to ignite.

The winners of the local TV franchises promised to deliver big in return for the licence awards by Ofcom and the funding each would get from the BBC as part of the franchise. Each channel also gained a prized local prime slot on the Freeview EPG as the 6th channel in areas the new stations served under their licence.

Sadly, the shaky studio sets for may of the channels showed the sign of things to come as stations failed to deliver and slowly went out of business or had the operations taken over by other channels in the local tv sector.

In something that resembled the consolidation of the ITV regional network takeovers in the 1990’s that eventually resulted in the ITV network we have today with a consolidated Frankenstein regional service that fails to deliver for local news coverage for many areas.

The local TV channels had the potential to not only reverse the ITV loss of Local but also reignite Hyperlocal news and accountability of local government in the communities the services operated.

Sadly, what we have is now a channel playing for many low qualities filler content not intended to gain viewers but to fill airtime so the operators can pick up the thousands of pounds from the BBC the local tv franchises afforded them.

Since the first local tv franchise was awarded by Ofcom since the big announcement in 2011 by Jeremy Hunt, 34 stations have launched from Manchester to Maidstone, Bristol to Belfast, each awarded a prime slot on the Freeview TV guide to deliver a local TV channel.

However, many soon struggled financially and have been hit further by the pandemic, meaning local programming has been drastically cut back to the token gestures. many viewers if there are many probably don't realise they are watching a local tv channel at all based on the content broadcast.

The biggest licence holder of Local TV channels has removed the locations from its channel names - so That's Manchester, That's Swansea Bay, That's Hampshire and the company's other 17 stations are all now simply known as That's TV, while the company website bills itself as "the home of classic TV".

That's TV's only local programming is now a few minutes long as a “news” bulletin every weekday, with the rest of the schedule being a diet of nostalgic music videos and teleshopping.

The same sorry mess of consolidation has also seen our Independent local radio stations vanish and become national networked services sadly local content is at best a token gesture.

The one glimmer of hope on the radio front is the community radio stations that are growing in numbers slowly restricted by the slow-moving regulator in the licence advertising process.

However, these services are by the very concept hyperlocal, and community focused with a legal remit to be not for profit or owned by corporations and safe from takeover and mergers into networked echo chambers as happened to the original ILR stations.

The community radio model also offers an ideal model to reignite the local tv ambitions to provide "a new voice for local communities".

Community TV channels operating on the same not for profit model made in the community and by the community for the community they serve.

In the early 1990’s as the tv revolution exploded the UK suddenly catapulted from 4 channels to 100’s of channels via satellite and cable tv. We had the HDTV era also begin and in an east Lancashire village called Waddington. The former ITV regional franchise of Granada TV conducted a bold television experiment for Channel 4.

It created Waddington the “The Television Village” and built a cable network to deliver the multitude of new tv channels to homes and study the community as a tv experiment.

As part of the service the Waddington TV channel was also created a hyperlocal channel form the community of Waddington made for the local community by the local community.

It was a prime example of community television and the potential. It may be over 3 decades ago now but the Waddington TV experiment has valuable lessons for today and the potential of community TV that is still awaiting to be unlocked.

We have the technology we have the communities we have the potential for Community Television we just need the legislation to unlock the potential of Community TV

Community television is a television station owned, operated or programmed by a community group to provide television programs of local interest known as local or community programming.

Community television stations that already operate in other parts of the world are commonly operated by non-profit groups or cooperatives or in some cases operated by a local college or university, a cable tv company or local government.

Here in the UK, Government could unlock and ignite a local community empowerment revolution to provide "a new voice for local communities".

A Community Television Bill would enable a reboot of the 2011 vison of Local TV that this time delivers on the ambitions by unlocking the potential of communities with provision amendments to the broadcasting bill to replicate the community radio model for community tv channels.