A Vision Network Takes A Closer Look Into The Announcement Of The First 20 UK Towns

A Vision Network Takes A Closer Look Into The Announcement Of The First 20 UK Towns And Cities In Line For Local TV Services End Quote

(1888PressRelease) February 03, 2012 - London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff are among 20 conurbations earmarked for local TV by Jeremy Hunt. Local TV may be coming to a small screen near you - but only if you are in one of the 20 towns and cities unveiled by the government as one of the "pioneers" of the new service. A source from A Vision Network comments saying, 'it will be interesting to see how this service rolls out and the response from the public.'

It is considerably fewer than the list of 65 towns and cities originally identified by media regulator Ofcom as "potential pioneer locations".
The government also revealed today that BSkyB and Virgin have committed to offering either apps or the use of the yellow button on their interactive services to fulfill the heavily debated obligation that the new local TV services receive "appropriate prominence" on electronic program guides (EPGs) when they are launched. A Vision Network supports the collaborative effort that is being put in by all parties to offer the public a more well-rounded service.

The first 20 areas to receive local TV services will be: Belfast,Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Grimsby, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich,Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Preston, Southampton and Swansea. A Vision Network is based in Cardiff and is a successful sales and marketing company. The managing director said, 'being a Cardiff based company we are pleased to be included in the roll out of this service.'

"Local TV will be a fundamental change in broadcasting in this country, meeting a real demand for local news and content," said Hunt. "We are now putting in place the measures needed to establish a series of commercially viable local TV stations."

However for this service to roll out where is the funding coming from? Helen Goodman, the shadow minister for media, criticized the local TV plans, saying they were a distraction from the controversial cuts to theBBC's local radio services which have been much criticized by MPs.

She said the £40m of license fee money that will be spent on local TV, including £25m start-up capital costs and £5m a year over three years on acquiring local content, meant that the government was "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

Hunt said three pieces of legislation will soon be put to parliament to enable the launch of local TV services.One piece will make spectrum available for broadcast, the second is a local licensing regime and the third is to ensure EPG prominence for the services.

The government said a further 24 areas have been identified for a future round of licensing of local TV services.These are: Aberdeen, Ayr, Bangor, Barnstaple, Basingstoke, Bedford, Cambridge, Carlisle, Derry/Londonderry, Dundee, Guildford, Hereford, Inverness, Kidderminster, Limavady, Luton, Maidstone, Malvern, Mold, Salisbury, Sheffield, Stoke on Trent, Stratford upon Avon and York. This is good news for these areas however they will have to wait quite a while.

Hunt has had a rocky ride gaining acceptance for his local TV plan, with detractors claiming it is not financially viable.The Department for Culture Media and Sport has said that £25m in local TV infrastructure costs will be met from the BBC license fee, with a further £5m of license fee money to be spent annually for three years on local content. A Vision Network finishes off their review of this story with the Managing Director saying, 'only time will tell if this project will prove to be successful and deliver on what it intends to achieve.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk

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