[mouseboy33]

I can see those channels being converted to info stream channels. Especially if they were aligned with a local news outlet, a newspaper for example. Sadly the MEN operated channel waaaaaaaaay ahead of its time. Currently they have loads of video now integrated on their website for stories, even for breaking stories. So clearly their reporters now operate as MMJ's.

So I can see a mix of their video reports using on screen with text and current weather and other features on jukebox style channel. They also do LIVE blogs on their website when there is a breaking story. I can see that integrated on the channel. Mix that with live cam shots across the city and surrounding Greater MCR area. They can sell the telly advertising alongside their newspaper/website ads.

I was thinking how Shetland Radio has a cheap version that cycles thru its webcams with the weather. But you can imagine a news source like MEN feeding a streaming or LOCAL channel with all their information coming in.
www.shetlandwebcams.com 

60 NORTH RADIO | Shetland Webcams
Our relaunched 60 NORTH visual radio service
  Source: www.shetlandwebcams.com

[nwtv2003]

To be fair Channel M (as you call, the MEN channel) did something similar at breakfast time for a while after they axed their breakfast programme where they ran live camera feeds of the motorways in the area (usually the M60) with what was then Real Radio playing the background with a ticker at the bottom of the screen. It was certainly practical but in comparison to having an actual breakfast programme prior to this, it felt very much like a channel that was on its way out.

[lookoutwales]

In hindsight, Channel M - and particularly, the news operation - actually had a fairly traditional TV production model for the most part.

The news service was pretty much its own thing to begin with - one half-hour bulletin a day, pre-recorded, with a core team of reporters and camera ops (based out of some newspaper offices at Stockport, IIRC, before they moved to Urbis) - not forgetting the small fleet of news jeeps, parked up across the road in the Printworks multi-storey.

The MEN only began to be utilised more once they had expanded to about 3-4 hours a day of live bulletins - i.e. the lunchtime news came live from the Spinningfields newsroom and occasionally, there would be a contribution from one of the paper's journos, but most of the newsgathering was still being done by Channel M's own teams (no self-shooting involved)

Those links began to drift apart towards the end, even though they still retained common ownership - think I remember being told they were expecting to break even by 2009 (three years after launching on Sky).

Of course, that never happened and even when it launched, it was only a matter of time before Channel M Today (the last remaining in-house production) was axed.

[Brekkie]

When did Channel M begin? Did they bid for the Manchester local licence? They really should have got it by default - would surely have made sense to kick start the local network using any long established incumbents, although I think only the NI analogue broadcaster switched over.

[lookoutwales]

When did Channel M begin? Did they bid for the Manchester local licence? They really should have got it by default - would surely have made sense to kick start the local network using any long established incumbents, although I think only the NI analogue broadcaster switched over.

They launched on a restricted service licence on Valentine's Day 2000, extending to NTL cable in 2004, Sky in 2006 and Freeview in April 2010 (though it closed on Sky and Virgin Media the following September)

They never went for the Manchester licence because they had decided that the Government's rollout plan for local channels was unviable, hence their closure in April 2012 (shortly before the first winners of the new licences were announced)

That was about two years after in-house production ended, though GMG had been keeping Channel M in a holding pattern until the rollout plans emerged - and the only local output consisted of programming from Salford University, one or two other indie producers and those Real Radio simulcasts.

Even if Channel M had won the licence and / or had resumed its own production, it probably would have been very different from what had been before - the sale of MEN (and its sister local titles) to Trinity Mirror was pretty much the final death knell. By then, even the three-hour Channel M Today was reduced to a one-hour show on a loop.

[lookoutwales]

Not entirely surprised to hear Talk TV will shut its linear platform, but I suspect it leaves Local TV (ex-Made) scrambling for yet another simulcast partner.

On another note - had an overnight stay in Manchester and stumbled across That's TV's idea of a local 'news review' programme (shown in the prime 2am slot at weekends).

Put simply - the week's 6pm 'Headline News', bulletins, shown unedited back-to-back. The bulletins themselves were what you'd expect - the odd bit of phone footage (landscape, thank heavens) to accompany stories in brief, two Zoom interviews per bulletin (tellingly, the opening titles consisted of lots of Zoom faces over the customary stock purple graphics)

At least it was presented from some kind of a studio rather than Local TV's PTC-from-a-random-location format (surprised too they had at least a team of three on hand to rotate as presenters)

[London Lite]

Not entirely surprised to hear Talk TV will shut its linear platform, but I suspect it leaves Local TV (ex-Made) scrambling for yet another simulcast partner.

And another rebrand of the local channels.

[lookoutwales]

And another rebrand of the local channels.

Oddly enough, the orange 'Local TV' branding and graphics are still being used for the local programmes.

[Brekkie]

Maybe, and here's a radical idea, they could show, you know, local programmes!

Failing everything else always thought the Community Channel (now called Together TV) would be a good fit as a sustaining feed for local channels, but in reality that's mostly just reruns of BBC and C4 lifestyle shows most of the day now.

[Neil Jones]

I wouldn't mind the simulcasting half as much on Local TV if it was with a channel that isn't on Freeview already.

But at the moment its just used to bump somebody from the other end of the EPG upwards on the cheap, which wasn't really the intention.

I notice Ofcom have published some blurb today in light of the anticipated renewal of these licences. 'Ensuring local TV services understand their programming obligations'. Apparently "Last year, Ofcom conducted a monitoring exercise to understand how licensees are currently meeting their programming commitments, and identified certain practices and programming which have led us to issue this reminder to licensees about the guidance we published that set out our expectations for local TV services."

Reading between the lines it would appear that Ofcom seem to have finally decided that simulcasting TalkTV all day doesn't really count as "local" content and it seems to be a coded message to pull your finger out if you to keep your licence from 2025 if you feel this guide applies to you...

Although I suspect the secretary of state will have the final say regardless of what Ofcom want so... hmm.