--- PLEASE FORWARD ---   (Apologies for Cross-Posting)

 

***WANTED: VIEWS ON THE FUTURE OF LOCAL TELEVISION***

 

The Community Media Association, in association with the University of Lincoln, has commissioned an update of Simon Blanchard’s CMA/AHRB report: “A Third Tier of Television: The Growth of ‘Restricted Service Licence’ TV in the UK – Trends and Prospects” (2001). The remit is to expand upon, as well as update, Blanchard’s original findings.

 

The report, provisionally entitled “Local and Community Television in a Digital World”, will be geared towards a fortification of the CMA’s policy base, as they seek to develop a coherent ‘sector-wide’ approach to underpin forthcoming contributions to DCMS and OfCom initiated consultation processes – particularly around the development of a ‘Local Digital Television Order’, the securing of digital spectrum for local television services, and the continued development of media-centred community regeneration programmes.

 

ALL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE WELCOME – to be received (preferably) before Friday October 22nd, so they can be included in the report’s first drafting, and be included within ongoing strategic discussions. Contributions will be treated (on request) with the degree of confidentially stipulated.

 

A summary of the research is included below. Feel free to contact me.

 

Chris Hewson ([log in to unmask])

 

 

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LINKS

 

Community Media Association - www.commedia.org.uk

CMA/AHRB Report - www.bftv.ac.uk/projects/thirdtier.htm

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LOCAL AND COMMUNITY TELEVISION IN A DIGITAL WORLD

 

RESEARCH BRIEF

 

This report foregrounds the vital role which LCTV stakeholders must play in ongoing debates around media reform and regulation – arguments centred around competing visions, and definitions, of ‘converged media’. It will argue that a clear understanding, and vision, of social and technological change, within an increasingly networked media ecology, is imperative, in order that the LCTV sector might develop robust policy positions, and appropriate business strategies, going forward. Through a brief examination of a number of LCTV cases, and building upon previous research the report will provide a concise synopsis of an increasingly diversified sector – in terms of both organisational form, and content created – as well contributing a number of significant recommendations which could inform forthcoming LCTV discussions.

 

The report will embrace three key policy clusters. Firstly, new provisions within the Communications Act , in particular the burgeoning relationship between OfCom and the community media sector as a whole. Secondly, the work of the DTi/DCMS Digital Television Project, in particular the opportunities and dangers which digital switch-over presents for the LCTV sector, as well as the manner by which digitisation expands the range of prospective distribution mechanisms at the disposal of community media organisations. Thirdly, the OfCom Review of Public Service Broadcasting, in particular it’s relationship to the DCMS review of the BBC Charter, and how the LCTV sector should both seek to understand, as well as influence, these entwined processes.

 

 

THE REPORT WILL PERFORM A NUMBER OF FUNCTIONS

 

* It will form an initial basis for future consultations with the DCMS and OfCom, towards both the refinement of the current LCTV licensing regime, initiated by the iTC, as well as the development of a Community Television Order and parallel LCTV working group.

 

* It will consider the issue, and likelihood, of LCTV being recognised as public service broadcasting, and the implications for future spectrum management.

 

* It will assess the concomitant issue of partnership working, with specific reference to the BBC’s forays into local and community media schemes, as well as the disparate arguments advanced for the public funding of LCTV.

 

* It will outline a number of LCTV models, principally the proposed delineation of the sector into ‘profit-making’ and ‘non-profit distributing’ components.

 

* It will consider lessons drawn, thus far, from the Community Radio licensing process, particularly regarding the definitional construction of ‘local’ and ‘community’.

 

 

IN SUMMARY THE REPORT WILL PROVIDE INITIAL ANSWERS TO THREE PERTINENT QUESTIONS

 

* How can the LCTV sector maintain an adequate stake in both the new ‘communications settlement’, and other New Labour policy schemes?

 

* How can the CMA best advance specific policy proposals, as well as its wider outlook, to Government, OfCom, and the wider media industry?

 

* Which distinctive models, and paradigms, might the LCTV sector seek to invest in, both financially and socially, in order to enshrine itself within the new communications ecology?