The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Channel 6 Jeremy Hunt

Jeremy Hunt told to 'stick to your guns' over initial Local Media Action Plan

Author

By The Drum Team, Editorial

June 29, 2011 | 7 min read

Members of a newly formed Alliance, including former BBC director general Greg Dyke, have shown their support to the Local Media Action plan, lobbying Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to ‘stick to his guns'.

In announcing the formation of the Local TV Alliance, made up of Channel 6, Channel 7, Nigel Dacre, Greg Dyke, Richard Horwood, Inclusive Digital, Paul Jackson, Clive Jones, Local6, Peter Williams and Lia Nici, it was also revealed that a letter written on behalf of the alliance would be sent to Jeremy Hunt highlighting their support for his plans.

Clive Jones, chairman of Channel 6 introduced the letter and the Alliance by saying that it brought together a group of people with journalistic roots and a belief in the power of local media.

“We welcomed the Local Media Action Plan with its proposal for a new national network to support a diverse range of new local stations as the only realistic way to achieve the Government’s objectives without public subsidy,” commented Jones. “Then just a few weeks ago we heard that Jeremy was now veering away from the network/affiliate model towards the idea of standalone local stations. The same idea of standalone stations that was comprehensively dismissed by Nick Shott in his report, that has been tried and failed before in this country both by some of our leading media groups and individual enthusiasts, and that was ruled out in Jeremy’s own Local Media Action Plan. The reason given for the change was because implementation of some of the elements of the Action Plan might take longer than expected.”

Jones added that the Alliance wanted Hunt to he should not ‘abandon his flagship policy’ or fragment its into local stations as they did not believe that would work.

“We’ve written to the Secretary of State today to encourage him to stick to his guns. We’ve had detailed discussion with Ofcom, we’ve each taken a close look at our own plans, different in detail as they are, and we’ve come to a common conclusion. We can still deliver, Minister. We stand ready, willing, and able to adapt our plans to accommodate the new realities,” he continued.

“The need for local TV is more pressing than ever as the BBC cuts back on its own local services, the pressures on local newspapers increase, and ITV threatens to reduce even further its regional coverage. So, Minister, don’t give in to vested interests determined to do all they can to block or diminish what together we can achieve.”

The full letter to Jeremy Hunt from the Alliance can be read below:

Dear Secretary of State

We were among the first of the prospective national network operators to applaud your vision for local TV in this country. Although we differ about the detail, we have consistently supported your view, and that of Nicholas Shott and his advisory panel, that the only way to ensure commercially viable local TV without Government subsidy is through some form of network or backbone supporting truly local services.

We are joined in this letter by Grimsby’s Channel 7, Britain’s longest-running local TV channel, and the sole survivor (in its case mainly through educational and other grant funding) of many attempts over the years to operate standalone local TV channels in this country.

We accept that the realities of Parliamentary timetables and the resistance of established broadcasters may mean that the Government cannot deliver in one fell swoop the full package of measures identified by ourselves and Nicholas Shott as essential to help ensure a successful and sustainable commercially-funded local TV sector. However, that should not deflect you from the conclusions and determination you expressed in the Local Media Action Plan, as the rationale underlying those conclusions has not changed.

The main purpose of this letter is to assure you that we ourselves stand ready, willing and able to adapt our plans to accommodate these realities. In particular, following discussion with OFCOM, we are satisfied that robust application of the existing framework for Electronic Programme Guides will ensure adequate prominence on a majority of broadcast platforms, pending new primary legislation that would secure EPG positioning alongside the existing PSB Channels on all platforms. Similarly, and again based on discussion with OFCOM, we believe that the Geographic Interleaved spectrum will not only provide a practical balance between coverage and capacity for local services, but when aggregated will deliver sufficient coverage for a commercially viable national support network if, in the event, it proves impossible to gain carriage on an existing PSB multiplex.

In other words, the obstacles uncovered since publication of the Local Media Action Plan can be accommodated to allow local TV based on a network backbone to flourish in line with your vision, and are therefore no reason to abandon it.

Moreover, under existing legislation, standalone local TV stations will continue to languish near the bottom of the EPGs on all platforms, as does Channel 7 today on Virgin Media’s Channel 879 for example, and can only achieve EPG prominence as part of a national PSB network that can objectively justify it.

We therefore urge you to stick to your guns. The need for local TV is more pressing than ever as the BBC cuts back on its own local services, the pressures on local newspapers increase, and ITV threatens to reduce even further its regional coverage. Don’t give in to vested interests determined to do all they can to block or diminish what together we can achieve.

For our part we can deliver the will, the professional experience, the local commitment, and the funding to make your vision work. All we ask is that you proceed with a regulatory framework and a bidding process based on the national support network that you and your advisory panel have already agreed is the only commercially viable way forward.

Of course it is important that you build in appropriate safeguards to ensure that the local services are paramount, that the national does not dominate the local in commercial or programming terms, that the local services can survive any failure of the network and vice versa, and that the choice of local partners is open, transparent, and inclusive. Let us then put forward a range of formal proposals based on your original vision, each supported by detailed business plans, and it then falls to the appropriate arbiter to determine which of our models is the best placed to succeed.

Yours faithfully,

Channel 6

Channel 7, Grimsby

Nigel Dacre

Greg Dyke

Richard Horwood

Inclusive Digital

Paul Jackson

Clive Jones

Local6

Lia Nici

Peter Williams

Channel 6 Jeremy Hunt

More from Channel 6

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +