London Live

The problem is people think that local tv is viable with 100% local content. That pretty hard to do and very expensive. Plus that fact that if you stretch your production budget too thin you get programs that looks and feel incredible cheap and very same-y. To be viable there always has to be mix of programming. IMO OFCOM should determine a minimum percentage of local productions much be shown on the local channels per day. I dont find any of this upheaval surprising at all. Finding a local tv model that actually works in the UK is gonna take money vision and deep pockets and lots of patience....well at least in LONDON.

Regarding LL, HEADLINE LONDON should be their flagship news broadcast. Stop the shenanigans and get on with telling the day in the life of London.

5.5 hours a day is not 100%.

I was referring to this actually.

And mark was in turn referring to the problem that London Live are claiming 5.5 hours a day is too much local coverage.

Nearly everyone else disagrees. That doesn't mean they think that 100% local stuff is wanted, expected or even viable, just that 5.5 hours should be more than achievable for the largest city in the UK.

Lol it certainly should be.

Pretty much - although the 5.5 hours a day is their 'news' output, which I don't think they want to change. The big one is cutting local content in prime time down from 3 hours to 1 hour. They also want to drop a commitment to show 10 hours of local repeats a day.

While I don't really mind what they do off-peak, I think there's a strong case that a channel whose licence and prominent EPG position are based on its localness should have to show more than 1 hour of local content in prime time.

Incidentally, 'prime time' is defined as 6-10.30 pm by Ofcom - so one hour of local content would really just be a drop in the ocean.

If these channels don't offer local content in primetime I don't really see the point of them. Understandable they'll show other stuff in off-peak periods, but I think 6-10.30pm should be very distinctly local.

Local doesn't have to be a grand affair. Notts TV are producing cheap as chips local non-news programmes which are by their own claims been accepted by the audience.

What London Live has to learn is what their editorial policy should be for news and what they can produce non-news wise which is entertaining, but doesn't have to cost the earth to produce. Notts TV, Mustard TV and I suspect the green screen infested Latest TV also get it. London Live should get it too, if not, sell the licence and ESTV to one of the other bidders.

Well I kinda dont agree. I think local programs can fit in the periphery hours. If you shove your local productions into dayparts where the audience it likely to watching Strictly or XFactor or Corrie, its kinda of waste. The trick to counterprogramm the early evening just before Primetime and just after, may slot a local program between an acquired show. Thats typically how unaffiliated local channels in North America are programmed.

Example:

5:30(6:00)-8:00 am Breakfast Show
9:00 am Local Female studio program
10:00 am Local interest magazines
11:00 am Acquired daytime talk show/court show, etc
12:00 Noon Newscast
1:00pm Acquired program (comedy?)
2:00pm Local magazine program/kids show
3:00 kids cartoons
4:00 local early evening live studio show/chat
4:30 acquired (gameshow? )
5:00 News block
6:00 News block
6:30 Local Entertainment program
7:00 Movie/Acquired comedy/drama
8:00 cont....
9:00 News block
10:00 Acquired comedy
10:30 acquired comedy
11:00 local entertainment magazine
Midnight Late movie or repeats until morning.

I think putting up any local programming in the UK at 1830 is close to ratings suicide. The most watched news slot on UK TV is usually the 1830-1900 BBC One regional news (as the BARB ratings are split for each programme it never appears in the ratings as such - but if you add them together or look at the overnights you can see what a ratings beast it is).

Putting another local show - even entertainment - up against it is a real mistake. Particularly in London where BBC London and London Live cover pretty much the same broadcast area (i.e. there is less of a hyper-local advantage for London Live)

Similarly a news block at 1800 is competing with the main BBC One national news - which again is a bit of a ratings beast, and at 1800 you also have the ITV regional news (not quite such a juggernaut in some areas) Offering a third option at 1800 may not be a great recipe for success.

Any local operation concentrating any local original news programming at 1800-1900 is on a hiding to nothing before they've built a decent brand and audience - unless they are trying to hide their local content to meet a quota and think non-original content is the route to advertising income.

If anything, offering an alternative to the BBC One and ITV 1800-1900 news hours could be the smart thing to do? I'd look at acquisitions for that slot - possibly pre-watershed comedy (though comedy is expensive and could be buried a bit there), or acquired game-show or entertainment show repeats...

1900-1930 is an interesting place to do local stuff if you want to find an audience, particularly if you are editorially distinct and unlikely to overlap hugely with the BBC 1830 bulletin that you would follow for a bulk of the audience surfing at 1900. 1900 is early peak - so it may be financially better (at least initially) to put acquired content in that slot - but if not you're competing with a soap and The One Show (itself having a lightly regional feel) Possibly quite a good place to put a local news show - particularly as in some areas people are still arriving home from work at that time.

Any movies on local stations are going to be of the very low rent variety, as most mainstream studios already have pre-existing deals with the main UK terrestrials and pay-TV platforms.

Thats a good schedule idea. But with some massaging a viable schedule could be worked out. I wouldnt waste my local productions by putting in Primetime, when its gauranteed no one will be watching. From my perspective primetime is 7-10. Eastcoast of the USA its 8-11.

As far as movies goes, there are plenty of movies to ago around. WCIU-26 Chicago, a completely 100% indie tiny local station created along with MGM ThisTV once they sold off that channel they turned around and help Fox create MOVIES! Both channel ran as a digital subchannel. So it actually takes someone with gumption to approach these studios to carve out a deal. So I wouldnt just throw up my hands and say it isnt possible . This little indie station became a powerhouse in local televison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movies!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_TV

I just don't think all these comparisons with US local TV are realistic whatsoever.