2009/6/18 Alex Mace <[email protected]> > Is there a demand for this service though? IIRC the BBC was providing > "local" news channels through the website but they've since been removed, I > presume because of lack of people watching it. >
There was a demo service, based on "counties" that was a bit basic. It was removed because the BBC Trust said it would "distort the market". A market that, aparently, the BBC is now going to have to properly distort by funding ITV! > > On 18 Jun 2009, at 12:28, Brian Butterworth wrote: > > > > 2009/6/18 Andrew Bowden <[email protected]> > >> Well each one would have a budget of £5m by that estimate. It's >> possible, but only if that included satellite and internet distribution. >> >> Terrestrial just wouldn't be possible with the current transmitter >> network. >> > > Thankfully this isn't about the current transmitter network. You could > certainly carry several low-bandwidth news programmes to have more than one > "local news" service on the multiplexes for each transmitter to provide a > more localized service. > > For example if you broken the Yorkshire and Humber region into: > > * West Yorkshire (Leeds, Bradford, Hudderfield, Halifax) > * South Yorkshire (Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster) > * York and North Yorkshire > * Hull, North and Northeast Linconshire, East Riding > > You would have to carry the first two services from Emley Moor and > Sheffield (and relays) because the geography doesn't fit with the > transmitter areas. > > If you follow the logic though, I get these services: > > Tyne and Wear - Durham and Northumberland - Manchester - Merseyside and > Blackpool - Cumbria and Northwest Counties - West Midlands Metropolitan - > West Midlands Counties (two services, north and south) - > Leicester/Nottingham/Derby - East Midlands Counties > (Notts/Derbys/Lincs/Northamptons/Leictersh/Rutland) - Southampton and > Hampshire - M4 Corridor (Oxford, Reading, Slow, Woking) - Kent East Sussex > and Brighton - Surrey and West Sussex - Bristol, Bath and Western - Devon > and Cornwall - Dorset and Wiltshire - Norfolk and Suffolk - Essex > and Herts - Cambridge and Bedford - Edinburgh and Glasgow, Highlands and > Islands, Rest of Scotland, South Wales Coast (Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, > Rhondda) - North and Rural Wales - Northern Ireland - London South - London > North - London East - London West > > I think from my general working out that you would need to carry between > one and four "local" services for each transmitter, usually two. > > It is "doable", and would I think be a better service for all concerned. > > >> >> ------------------------------ >> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: >> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Brian Butterworth >> *Sent:* 18 June 2009 10:49 >> *To:* [email protected] >> *Subject:* Re: [backstage] The Final Digital Britain report >> >> The think I have the most of an issue with is the funding of a regional >> news programme for ITV. >> If you are going to spend £150m (say) of BBC money, it would be better to >> break up the BBC regional news service into a network of BBC local news >> channels. >> >> For a start it would make sense to supplement BBC London with BBC >> Birmingham and BBC Manchester. This would mean BBC West Midlands and BBC >> North West becomes a "county" service. >> >> The BBC Scotland service could be split into an urban "central belt" >> service for Edinburgh and Glasgow and a "highland and islands" service (cf. >> "Grampian region") >> >> The BBC North West service could split into three, one for "Tyne", one for >> "Tees" and one for "Cumbria". >> >> BBC North could be BBC West Yorkshire (Leeds, Bradford etc), BBC South >> Yorkshire (Sheffield) and BBC North Yorkshire (another "county" service). >> >> The BBC South region could split as Meridian did, with one for the >> Hampshire end and another for Sussex. >> >> And so on. There are 60.9 million people in the UK, so 30 regional news >> channels serving a population of about 2 million each would be "local" news. >> >> It would CLEARLY be better for there to be ONE news programme with LOCAL >> news for everyone, than a choice of TWO news programmes that are REGIONAL. >> >> Any analysis would show that people would benefit more for news of a more >> local nature, than a choice of two lots of news that will be about somewhere >> that is not local. >> >> The idea of preserving regional news on ITV is nostalgia and not an >> analysis of what would benefit the public. >> >> You could clearly get 30 x BBC Local News 24-hour channels from £150m a >> year, couldn't you? >> >> >> >> 2009/6/16 Ian Forrester <[email protected]> >> >>> The Final Digital Britain Report >>> http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/6216.aspx >>> >>> So what do people think? Time to leave the country or dig a hole and >>> stick our heads into it? >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Ian Forrester >>> >>> This e-mail is: []secret; []private; [x]public >>> >>> Senior Producer, BBC Backstage, BBC R&D >>> Room 1044, BBC Manchester BH, Oxford Road, M60 1SJ >>> email: [email protected] >>> work: +44 (0)1612444063 | mob: +44 (0)7711913293 >>> >>> - >>> Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, >>> please visit >>> http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. >>> Unofficial list archive: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Brian Butterworth >> >> follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/briantist >> web: http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover >> advice, since 2002 >> >> > > > -- > Please email me back if you need any more help. > > Brian Butterworth > > follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/briantist > web: http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover > advice, since 2002 > > > -- Please email me back if you need any more help. Brian Butterworth follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/briantist web: http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002
