The Newsroom

London Live

announce News presenters (December 2013)

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DO
dosxuk
I don't see how totally killing off the entertainment commissions will help the channel to be honest. If all their in-house commissions become News based, will London Live becoming too similar to the BBC/ITV's offerings.


But what are people going to tune into a local TV channel for - news / weather / up to date information about where they live; a cheap clone of a programme done far better by the big broadcasters; or some documentary made by students on a shoestring budget on a topic only a handful of people are interested in?

These local stations only hope is to try and out-local the BBC / ITV, not by trying to out the complete BBC/ITV offerings.
LL
London Lite Founding member
Boseley mentions F2 Kicks Off, Food Junkies and Drag Queens of London which are certain to be recommissioned. As dvboy mentions, these formats should be easy to sell to other niche channels.

I'd add CTRL Freaks to that which some small tweaks could be sold to another youth format channel, such as E4 or ITV2.

However, the added investment in News and Current Affairs saved from entertainment will improve those programmes as the cracks in the output are still those live shows, especially Not the One Show and Power Lunch.

Wake up London should be the home for getting a quick fix of news, weather and travel. Despite improvements, travel and weather especially continue to be dreadful.
Last edited by London Lite on 18 August 2014 7:15pm
ST
Standby
I don't see how totally killing off the entertainment commissions will help the channel to be honest. If all their in-house commissions become News based, will London Live becoming too similar to the BBC/ITV's offerings.


But what are people going to tune into a local TV channel for - news / weather / up to date information about where they live; a cheap clone of a programme done far better by the big broadcasters; or some documentary made by students on a shoestring budget on a topic only a handful of people are interested in?

These local stations only hope is to try and out-local the BBC / ITV, not by trying to out the complete BBC/ITV offerings.

Agreed!
A local channel should not be trying position itself as an E4/BBC Three. That was madness.
It needs to be a mix of the Standard & Time Out. News at the core of the service & London features (Food/arts&culture/entertainment/events) fleshing it out.
Ofcom clearly chose the wrong bid in my opinion, but hopefully not too late for LL. Without news at its core, there is no point. There are scores of general entertainment channels that can do a better job than LL.
SD
SuperDave


Wake up London should be the home for getting a quick fix of news, weather and travel. Despite improvements, travel and weather especially continue to be dreadful.



Agreed. I tuned in again to Wake Up London last week and again this morning. The show still lacks any decent production and seems to be thrown together. There's no attempt at sticking to a regular format or time - this morning's half hour headlines ran at 7.36, last week it was closer to 7.40.

Weather and travel updates are are still woeful and lack decent graphics.

If they are going to focus on news and current affairs then I seriously hope they're going to find themselves someone who knows how to produce this type of programming, because whoever's doing it now hasn't got a clue.
GO
gottago
Boseley mentions F2 Kicks Off, Food Junkies and Drag Queens of London which are certain to be recommissioned. As dvboy mentions, these formats should be easy to sell to other niche channels.

I'd add CTRL Freaks to that which some small tweaks could be sold to another youth format channel, such as E4 or ITV2.

They could be sold elsewhere but they're all made by indies so London Live wouldn't make any money from their sales.
LL
London Lite Founding member



Agreed. I tuned in again to Wake Up London last week and again this morning. The show still lacks any decent production and seems to be thrown together. There's no attempt at sticking to a regular format or time - this morning's half hour headlines ran at 7.36, last week it was closer to 7.40.

Weather and travel updates are are still woeful and lack decent graphics.

If they are going to focus on news and current affairs then I seriously hope they're going to find themselves someone who knows how to produce this type of programming, because whoever's doing it now hasn't got a clue.


It's got to shake off the 'student tv' tag which has bogged down the news output since they launched.

They have the talent there, but you have to question if they're in the right roles? You have Alex Beard who's a great all rounder who can present the car crash breakfast show and Headline London with some form of gravitas, then switch to doing the lighter stuff such as the OB events. Claudia-Liza is fine for the heads, but I'm still not too sure about the sixty minute lunchtime show. However that could be still down to the format than her presenting ability.

However, the weak link continues to be Vanessa Baffoe. She no longer waffles, but the delivery seems stilted and false and appears to flirt with Gavin every time they work together on Wake Up London. However, when she does file a package, it's fine.
BR
Brekkie
dvboy posted:
Some of their in-house commissions could be sold on to other broadcasters, even internationally, I'm thinking of people like Food Network, Travel channel etc.

Not to proper TV channels then.
RI
Rijowhi
I don't see how totally killing off the entertainment commissions will help the channel to be honest. If all their in-house commissions become News based, will London Live becoming too similar to the BBC/ITV's offerings.


But what are people going to tune into a local TV channel for - news / weather / up to date information about where they live; a cheap clone of a programme done far better by the big broadcasters; or some documentary made by students on a shoestring budget on a topic only a handful of people are interested in?

These local stations only hope is to try and out-local the BBC / ITV, not by trying to out the complete BBC/ITV offerings.

Agreed!
A local channel should not be trying position itself as an E4/BBC Three. That was madness.
It needs to be a mix of the Standard & Time Out. News at the core of the service & London features (Food/arts&culture/entertainment/events) fleshing it out.
Ofcom clearly chose the wrong bid in my opinion, but hopefully not too late for LL. Without news at its core, there is no point. There are scores of general entertainment channels that can do a better job than LL.


I agree that a local channel should not be competing with E4/BBC Three. However as I stated previously I feel it depends what the extra News/Current Affairs consist of...if it's just several hours of programming that feels like a BBC/ITV Regional News programme then I don't see it catching on. As Standby said there surely still needs to be a little entertainment within that mix?
SD
SuperDave
As well as focussing on news and current affairs, I think there's still an opportunity for LL to focus on other programming while still aligning itself with The Standard.

I assume London Go will continue? If so, it could be paired with half hour shows on food, property, travel, the arts, sport etc., drawing on material from the paper.
MO
Mouseboy33
dvboy posted:
Some of their in-house commissions could be sold on to other broadcasters, even internationally, I'm thinking of people like Food Network, Travel channel etc.

This is a very good strategy, probably the best way monetize their productions. I cant speak for the other local productions that may come out of these local stations, but the production quality of the some of the LL programs are not bad. Again using the worlds most successful local station as an example. Citytv monetized their local productions very successfully around the world. Citytv produced shows such as Speakers' Corner, CityLine, FashionTelevision, SexTV, BookTelevsion, Electric Circus and MediaTelevision. They eventually sold the formats for these programs into their local markets for local language productions. FashionTelevision by far was their biggest hit globally. It was on air for an amazing 27 years and spawned its own tv channel run by Citytv as did BookTelevision and SexTelevision.
If LL was smart they would have included provisions in their commissioning contracts with the indie producers to syndicate these programs for a cut of the profits. Plow that money back it to LL.

I think they should go for a dayside news strategy with a mix of movies in the evening including a mix of local programs. The news programming should have a LondonFirst strategy. London news first right off the top of the broadcast. Think of a tight NY1-style wheel during the day and then entertainment mix during primetime. Then an 9:00 hourlong newscast that wraps up the day and short updates throughout the night. These 20-60sec updates can be accomplished by onscreen text and graphics over a live shot of the Evening Standard/LL newsroom or nighttime Ldn skyline. This gives the impression they are always watching and monitoring the city overnight. Without a strong aggressive newsroom they possibly lost a potential audience.

As stated in that article recently, their celebratory approach to news was a big misstep. Hold local officials to account rather than let them get away with stupid decisions. Demand answers of the councils across the boroughs and Boris at City Hall instead of brown nosing.

Watch this fascinating doc about the founder and creator of CITYTV and CHUM LTD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rlznehTfKw
Last edited by Mouseboy33 on 19 August 2014 12:36am - 3 times in total
LL
London Lite Founding member


As stated in that article recently, their celebratory approach to news was a big misstep. Hold local officials to account rather than let them get away with stupid decisions. Demand answers of the councils across the boroughs and Boris at City Hall instead of brown nosing.


Considering the Evening Standard is pro Boris and leans towards the Conservatives. I can't see that happening, despite claims that LL is impartial. This despite a recent 'debate' on Not the One Show where all agreed that Boris is a great mayor, where two of the people on the panel work for the Standard!
NG
noggin Founding member
dvboy posted:
Some of their in-house commissions could be sold on to other broadcasters, even internationally, I'm thinking of people like Food Network, Travel channel etc.

This is a very good strategy, probably the best way monetize their productions. I cant speak for the other local productions that may come out of these local stations, but the production quality of the some of the LL programs are not bad.


The problem is that almost all the higher quality stuff on London Live is commissioned from independent production companies, rather than being commissioned from an in-house production operation, and those indies will almost certainly have done a deal which means they retain ownership of their content and are able to sell it to other broadcasters (either in the UK or internationally) once London Live's initial broadcast window has closed. This will make money for the indies, but not London Live.

The reality is that all of the higher-quality content on London Live is either commissioned from indies, or acquired content that has already been broadcast on other channels.
Last edited by noggin on 19 August 2014 10:57pm

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