Jeremy Hunt reveals 65 areas in running for local TV services

Culture secretary criticised over towns and cities ruled ineligible due to lack of Freeview coverage The government has revealed the 65 towns and cities where it will be possible to launch local TV services, although those living in a number of sizeable conurbations including Bradford, Coventry, Leicester, Derby and Bath look likely to miss out. Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, on Tuesday published a map of the locations across the UK that media regulator Ofcom has identified where it is technically possible to launch local services on digital terrestrial TV platform Freeview. Hunt is asking the 65 eligible areas to make the case why their town or city should be one of the first to bid for a local TV licences. The government aims to license the first local TV stations by the summer of next year, with the first 10 to 20 services expected to be in operation by 2015. However, a significant number of sizeable towns, and households in rural areas, will not be eligible to receive local TV services due to technical difficulties. Residents of three of the 15 biggest UK cities – Bradford, Leceister and Coventry – will not be eligible to receive local TV as well as parts of other sizeable towns including Hull, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth. Smaller towns including Derby, Peterborough, Canterbury, Worcester, Durham, Chester and Exeter will also be ineligible. The Scottish culture secretary, Fiona Hyslop, criticised the proposed locations, saying that they “fall far short of the mark”. “We have real concerns about Jeremy Hunt’s proposals which would leave gaping holes in provision, particularly in rural areas,” she said. “Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders are arguably the parts of Scotland most in need of local television. Viewers here currently receive local news on Channel 3 which is broadcast from Gateshead. Nothing in these inadequate proposals would deliver benefits for viewers in these areas, which are not even on the list of eligible locations.” The government admitted that it is not possible for every household to potentially receive Freeview local TV services under the current scheme, but hoped that in the future internet-based services might plug the coverage gaps across the UK. “The nature of geographic interleaved spectrum means not everyone will be able to get local TV delivered through digital terrestrial TV,” said a spokesman for the DCMS. “There are gaps in the spectrum and geographic features such as mountains and hills can pose difficulties. However, the government is clear that it would one day like everywhere in the UK to have access to a local TV service, and therefore supports the concept of local TV developing on IPTV [internet TV] in the future.” Hunt has published a consultation document seeking views from those cities and towns eligible to be in the first wave of licences, with a list of the 20 contenders drawn up by the end of the year. He intends to hold summits to discuss the issues and benefits of local TV in six cities, starting with Birmingham on 18 August and ending with London on 14 September. “These new, local TV services will be a fundamental change in how people get information about their own communities, and how they hold their representatives to account,” Hunt said. “There’s a huge appetite for local news and information in communities the length and breadth of the country. We need to decide which areas are best placed to pioneer the new service.” Hunt has had a rocky ride gaining acceptance for his local TV plan, with detractors claiming it is not financially viable. Last month he ditched a plan for a proposed new national TV network which would have provided a “spine” for the new local TV services. The DCMS has said that £25m in local TV infrastructure costs will be met from the BBC licence fee, with a further £5m of licence fee money to be spent annually for three years on local content. Electronic programme guide providers such as Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media will be required to give “appropriate prominence” to licensed local digital TV services, enforced through Ofcom statutory code, which will require secondary legislation. •

Posted by on August 9, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.