GMG axes original content and staff at Channel M
skyscraper101
Posts: 450 Forum Member
✭
Sad news.
I like Channel M news. Original programming, live and dedicated to the Greater Manchester area. Even London doesn't have its own channel.
And now its being axed :mad:
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/5011833.article
I like Channel M news. Original programming, live and dedicated to the Greater Manchester area. Even London doesn't have its own channel.
And now its being axed :mad:
http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/5011833.article
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Comments
Wut??
When I clicked on the thread it displayed the blue banner of the thread and nothing else.
(Now closed, due to the become the bloody National Football Museum, of all things!!)
Here, even the major cities of London and Manchester do not have their own TV station. ITV are even trying to scale down regional output or share the burden with the Beeb.
Why is local TV news so marginalised here?
Probably because you [as a country] lack pride and national identity. There doesn't seem to be much resonance with people and their country within the UK, which is sad.
It's more to do with the way our television system was set up. In the USA local affiliates own the equipment and can decide and broadcast whatever they want, they can broadcast whatever they want - but are usually franchised to a Network... in the same way some Local Corner Shops work. In the US, Network TV is an Opt-Out.
Here the broadcaster (ITV, FIVE) owns everything and decides what should be broadcast. In the UK, Local TV is an Opt-Out.
Or, perhaps, the cost. Channel M's schedule has slowly been cutting back its local sports coverage, culture, news...this was, sadly, only a matter of time.
Now if they'd sold DVD's of Frank Sidebottom's black and white show (with repeats in colour), maybe it would have survived...
I know that, but it people actually wanted to watch local news, then there would be money in it and therefore ITV being a commercial enterprise would cater for that audience. Either ITV has or is mismanaging how it caters local news or there is no market in local news therefore little to no revenue to be made.
Do you honestly think all the owned affiliates in America would concentrate on local news if there was no money to be had. That is where they make most of their money, by concentrating on local issues which is fostered by how people view their own country and their identity.
Like I said, if they had adequate revenue then they would be able to afford their schedule, but obviously not enough people are interested in local offerings, therefore there is no money to be had. Maybe the lack of support of local content is due to lack of national/regional identity.
Thus all so predictable. But a huge missed opportunity, it could have worked with the right people on board!
I don't live in Manchester and I've never watched Channel M.
I feel it's a real sad day when one of our only city based stations gives up.
Manchester like all cities and communities has a large amount of local pride and identity. I don't understand if it can be made to pay in the USA and Canada why it can't work here.
There are no real local stations in the US. They tend to have lots of localy owned companies that are vertically integrated but they are just franchises showing network shows with a small broom cupboard for a studio to pt out local news (These companies usually own the local newspapers as well)
Actually there are plenty of "local" TV stations in the US.
They appear in TV guide as (Ind). These are independant of of the networks & carry zero network shows.
I have only been to the big cities, but you'll find them there. KCAL9 in Los Angeles was one las time i went. It showed mainly news, but occasionally live Baseball & when the game was rained off it switched to sitcoms
An article with a bit of your actual wordosity is here: http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-broadcasting/stop-press:-channel-m-201003177681/
Channel M hasn't been running much in the way of programming for several months. Everything except the evening news - music, sport, fashion, travel, features, entertainment, comedy, breakfast - was axed months ago and it's been running a diet of repeats and teleshopping since. There was no gradual cut back - it was there one day, gone the next with half the staff gone.
I presume the channel will now go to mostly teleshopping, Euronews, those job ads that just scroll across the screen with a bored-sounding voiceover and a few repeats of sessions with those long-forgotten unsigned bands from about 2006 that they've been looping. I read somewhere (probably here) that the local DTT multiplex now consists of whatever will now go under the name of Channel M and four channels of "Manchester Teleshopping".
There's some info elsewhere on How-Do about a supposed "rescue consortium" including Sky, Virgin, Freeview and a local radio station, Asian Sound. It does sound a bit like pie-in-the-sky, though - I'm unsure what a small Asian AM radio station would want with an expensive local TV channel.
Could be a good showcase for up and coming media companies but would anyone watch?
I wonder whether they will pay for productions?
Maybe this is the way forward for them, rent out
programming space similar to way information tv does with it's microchannels.
It was never goint to work. You caanot run a TV channel just to serve a city. The sums do not add up