Jones announced as chairman of Channel 6
Clive Jones has been appointed chairman of Channel 6, the national network set up to deliver local TV across the UK.
The former managing director of the ITV Network will also join Channel 6 management team to set up its network of local affiliate stations.
Channel 6 chief executive Richard Horwood said Jones’ appointment is a huge vote of confidence in the Channel 6 model as being “the only commercially viable way of delivering the Government’s objectives for local TV”.
He continued: “Clive is renowned not just for his journalistic and commercial track record, but also his outstanding contribution to society. He founded and chaired the Cultural Diversity Network that has done so much to improve the opportunities in TV for minorities both on- and off-screen. He also chaired Skillset for 8 years, the leading body for training in the creative media, and is the current chair of London Metropolitan University, and a visiting Professor at the School of Journalism at Cardiff University. In addition to this, he chairs Mediabox, the Government’s Youth Media Fund, and the Runnymede Trust, as well as serving on the board of the Young Vic Theatre and Legacy Trust UK, working with communities across the country to ensure a lasting legacy from the 2012 Olympic Games.
Jones meanwhile said: “At a time when commercial TV is ever more centralised and the BBC is under pressure to cut back its own local services, the Government is absolutely right to create a new framework so that commercially-funded local TV can develop across the country, hand in hand with the local press and other local media.”
He added: “In our highly competitive TV marketplace, broadcasting high quality programming both nationally and locally is the only way consistently to attract viewers, and hence the advertisers who will pay for the services. The Channel 6 model of local affiliate stations supported by a national backbone, with flexible opt-out times depending on the size and resources of each local affiliate, is the only way to guarantee broadcast quality programming.”