Micro-Broadcasting: 2012's major trend?

Posted by Adriana Hamacher in Breaking News on December 12, 2011  |  2 Comments More from this author  |    |  Follow Adriana Hamacher on: LinkedIn |

TWO-THOUSAND-AND-THIRTEEN has been earmarked by the UK government for the launch of at least twenty local TV channels, to be funded by £40 million from the licence fee, with the rest coming from advertising, but in Wales, they don’t have to wait that long. Next month the people of the Gwent valleys will be able to see themselves, and their neighbours, on 3VTV, a project being launched by the Micro-Broadcasting Centre and funded by the Welsh Government. The channel will be broadcast thanks to the new disruptive technology coming shortly to your TV screen, via the internet. Actually, it’s already here.

In fact the UK government needs to get its skates on, there have already been at least 140 expressions of interest in the British Culture Secretary's plan for every city and region in Britain to have a local public-service broadcaster to rival the BBC, by 2013. A shortlist is to be published imminently.

“I’d like us to be the first country in the world where we have a class of local media businesses which are offering their news across a whole number of platforms. I think there’s a huge opportunity there for the local newspaper industry,” says Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. 

His vision is of  "a landscape of local TV services broadcasting for as little as one hour a day.” This, however, is very much the old fashioned vision of hi-fi broadcasting. It costs the earth - annual running costs start at £500,000 for a regional channel but London would be far more expensive, especially if it were broadcasting all day. Sure, it delivers beautiful BBC quality content but is it really suited to local TV?

In fact, using the Internet, a TV station can broadcast around the clock for a fraction of the price. With the department of culture also spending nearly £600m introducing high-speed broadband nationwide, internet enabled TV becomes very attractive. It offers a cost-effective way of producing local TV coverage while uniting radio and news with pictures in a single device. It ignites social networks – and new ways of bringing news to communities that have lost a local newspaper.

And not all quality needs to be so great, does it? Well, in fact, it depends largely on the advertisers. 

Chris Locke, UK trading director at media-buying agency Starcom MediaVest, says advertisers will be keen on the new local channels and this is something that new, Welsh, internet broadcast, 3DTV is keen to exploit from the outset.

Content will include promotional films for Gwent companies, made by 3VTV’s team of professional film makers, which will bring a big boost to  the local economy. This will sit alongside content made by in-house film-makers, students from the University’s Film School and by the local community themselves. 

Chris Locke, well understands this concept:  

"It means TV becomes a broader church - for more brands than can afford to use TV currently. I don't think this will necessarily attract new media revenues, rather the opportunity is to divert non-TV monies regionally to TV."

Naturally, for Jeremy Hunt’s project, there will be hi-fi contenders, several have already been linked with London bids to be among the twenty chosen locations. These include the Local Television Network, which has received advice from former BBC director-general Greg Dyke. The London Evening Standard has also indicated an interest.

Channel 6, a bid spearheaded Richard Horwood, formerly of the Mirror’s Live TV, envisages one London channel, with dedicated websites for each part of the city.

Emma Scott, managing director of satellite TV platform Freesat, sounds a note of warning. She ran a local TV service in Hull for the BBC in 2002. "Certain aspects of it were hugely successful," she told Evening Standard "Some genres, like very local news, weather, sport and drama worked best, but it isn't cheap to do that sort of TV well if you want to retain audience interest." The Hull project lasted only a year. But thios was before broadband was robust enough for TV to work well in the medium.

The success of STV, which runs the ITV licence in Scotland, gives a more optimistic prognosis. They recently launched specialised, regional TV news programmes for parts of Scotland. The Edinburgh version, in particular, has been a success, with  news audiences jumping 17%. STV has also introduced 22 hyper-local websites, available only on broadband and mobile, which cover smaller areas. STV Buckie, for example, covers a rural, coastal fishing area. According to Rob Woodward, chief executive of STV: "The number of Facebook and Twitter followers is enormous - 25% of users regularly interact with social media sites using STV Buckie." 

A taste of things to come. 

Would you like to see history in the making? 3vTV is set to launch on 31st January in Ebbw Vale, Gwent. The Technology Strategy Board has limited FREE places. Participants will be treated to a Welsh, locally sourced, lunch, a visit to the 4D cinema and the Map Room – showcasing how local TV is partnering with the local community and, naturally, a choir! Register now, to guarantee your place.