08-06-2023, 02:26 PM
What John Whittingdale has said should, and could, be correct of course - and in some isolated examples has been. However, it is misleading to characterise the entire network of local stations as a success.
I think the point of the 10 minutes somehow being counted as an hour a day is that they are allowed to count repeated content - so if they show the 10 minutes of “local” content 6 times a day that’s 1 local hour.
Much like with “UK exclusive hours” on the BBC News channel, it becomes a game of counting up content hours even if the actual output of those hours is not adding value at all.
I am really quite surprised at this renewal, though. I would have assumed that, with the future of DTT in general looking uncertain, and continuous pressure from mobile operators to surrender more spectrum to them, the local TV mux would simply go when the current term expires. After all, as we are all saying, it’s not been a success. An interesting experiment, but not one that has worked out. Even if local stations did want to continue long into the future, there is an argument that the reduced costs of internet broadcasting would make the model much more viable than a broadcast version.
I could see a future scenario where only the three main muxes continue on Freeview, with all the com muxes closing due to lack of viability. A conversion to T2 would leave, effectively, an empty PSB mux which could house the main PSB offshoot channels currently on SDN. Arquiva may just get out of the game entirely if the demand isn’t there for other commercial channels, which I suspect it won’t be. So Freeview Lite, everywhere, is a likely outcome. Add to that the NI mini-mux, which will continue, and the Local TV channels as throw-in extras seem like quite unnecessary and redundant additions.
I think the point of the 10 minutes somehow being counted as an hour a day is that they are allowed to count repeated content - so if they show the 10 minutes of “local” content 6 times a day that’s 1 local hour.
Much like with “UK exclusive hours” on the BBC News channel, it becomes a game of counting up content hours even if the actual output of those hours is not adding value at all.
I am really quite surprised at this renewal, though. I would have assumed that, with the future of DTT in general looking uncertain, and continuous pressure from mobile operators to surrender more spectrum to them, the local TV mux would simply go when the current term expires. After all, as we are all saying, it’s not been a success. An interesting experiment, but not one that has worked out. Even if local stations did want to continue long into the future, there is an argument that the reduced costs of internet broadcasting would make the model much more viable than a broadcast version.
I could see a future scenario where only the three main muxes continue on Freeview, with all the com muxes closing due to lack of viability. A conversion to T2 would leave, effectively, an empty PSB mux which could house the main PSB offshoot channels currently on SDN. Arquiva may just get out of the game entirely if the demand isn’t there for other commercial channels, which I suspect it won’t be. So Freeview Lite, everywhere, is a likely outcome. Add to that the NI mini-mux, which will continue, and the Local TV channels as throw-in extras seem like quite unnecessary and redundant additions.