Regional TV station London Live has applied to Ofcom to reduce its commitment to local programming. It wants to air just one hour of local programming during the prime time evening slot, compared to the current three. London Live says it's because it's not pulling in as much advertising revenue as it had hoped. Nigel Dacre, the Chair of the Local TV Network, explains why some stations may want to revisit their programming commitments, whilst columnist Roy Greenslade says London Live's application proves that local TV isn't working.
What hasn't helped the station is all the haters both in the media and indeed the general public, who have written it off right from the start. These same media pundits are now gleefully now exclaiming well I told you so, well I say bollocks to you.
London Live is far from perfect but they have worked extremely hard to make it work in the face of vicious criticism and an inaccurate and unfair ratings system in BARB. I hope their application to reduce local content is successful and I do not believe it is anywhere near as drastic as everyone is making a song and dance about.
They deserve to survive, they are providing an effective local alternative to the mainstream channels and I hope that if their application is accepted by Ofcom and their ratings start to be reflected accurately and fairly, they will be in a better position to secure their future.
It`s bloody abysmal and everyone knows it, except those who work there it would seem!
What hasn't helped the station is all the haters both in the media and indeed the general public, who have written it off right from the start. These same media pundits are now gleefully now exclaiming well I told you so, well I say bollocks to you.
London Live is far from perfect but they have worked extremely hard to make it work in the face of vicious criticism and an inaccurate and unfair ratings system in BARB. I hope their application to reduce local content is successful and I do not believe it is anywhere near as drastic as everyone is making a song and dance about.
They deserve to survive, they are providing an effective local alternative to the mainstream channels and I hope that if their application is accepted by Ofcom and their ratings start to be reflected accurately and fairly, they will be in a better position to secure their future.
It's the general public who have shown no interest.
No private firm "deserves" to survive!, that's the point of the free market.
I see the 'Local World' group of Newspapers is doing well...a group of over 100 local Newspapers, they have taken struggling Local Newspaper groups, cut costs and have made a nice profit. Surely if Local TV is going to survive, it needs it's players to merge into a National/Local network similar to BBC/ITV's National/Regional network? History suggests this might happen...if they are quick enough.
What hasn't helped the station is all the haters both in the media and indeed the general public, who have written it off right from the start. These same media pundits are now gleefully now exclaiming well I told you so, well I say bollocks to you.
London Live is far from perfect but they have worked extremely hard to make it work in the face of vicious criticism and an inaccurate and unfair ratings system in BARB. I hope their application to reduce local content is successful and I do not believe it is anywhere near as drastic as everyone is making a song and dance about.
They deserve to survive, they are providing an effective local alternative to the mainstream channels and I hope that if their application is accepted by Ofcom and their ratings start to be reflected accurately and fairly, they will be in a better position to secure their future.
Seems to work well for every other channel in the UK, and in fact America too (which is a similar system).
As others have said, no channel deserves to survive, especially one that has only been going a few months. You either give the viewers what they want and survive, or don't and close.
Just exactly how far out does the signal from Crystal Palace get?
Our communal aerial faces Sandy Heath so can't test it up here for myself. It's annoying Virgin set the defaults here to BBC/ ITV London but don't include London Live in the channel selection
I receive it in Luton, not as high strength but fine most of the time it seems.
Only programme I regularly watch is Food Junkies, though it's repeated (like everything) so much that I only stumble on ones I've already seen now, and when I last tried there was no series link.
I think there is too little actual news content which it could do in the evening, get out there to places covering things that don't make the BBC/itv programmes. At the moment it certainly would not be somewhere I went to find out what was happening in London, definitely not in the evening which is the only time I would watch.
The Tube documentary has got a lot more airing recently & comedy seems to do ok. But they need to be making their own shows more which they can sell on.
Platform 8 aside, their news & current affairs is dire & they seriously need a decent evening news service IMO.
broadcastnow.co.uk reporting today that "Local TV broadcaster London Live is to cut-back on its original entertainment commissions and acquisitions to focus on providing news and current affairs programming."
The report indicates that staff are devastated by the decision. London Live intends to align its output more closely with that of its parent company, publisher of the Evening Standard.
I don't see how killing off the entertainment commissions will help the channel. If all the commissions are News based will it become too similar to the BBC/ITV offerings? If so it surely won't pick up many viewers. Depends how much of the required output is current affairs based. With the National/Regional limited current affairs programming, that might be more interesting methinks...depending on the direction they go.
broadcastnow.co.uk reporting today that "Local TV broadcaster London Live is to cut-back on its original entertainment commissions and acquisitions to focus on providing news and current affairs programming."
The report indicates that staff are devastated by the decision. London Live intends to align its output more closely with that of its parent company, publisher of the Evening Standard.
This is exactly what the remit should have been from launch and this ties in neatly with increasing the age demographic, I even suggested this to them in an e-mail shortly after launch; I also expressed my incredulity that the well paid and supposedly experienced media guys they had hired could get it so wrong. The owners of ESTV put their faith in their ability and they let everyone down including the viewers.
Mistakes were made in the beginning, although not all bad, they have had the balls to acknowledge this, now let them get on with it without continually vilifying and ridiculing them for the sake of it.
This is exactly what the remit should have been from launch and this ties in neatly with increasing the age demographic, I even suggested this to them in an e-mail shortly after launch; I also expressed my incredulity that the well paid and supposedly experienced media guys they had hired could get it so wrong. The owners of ESTV put their faith in their ability and they let everyone down including the viewers.
Mistakes were made in the beginning, although not all bad, they have had the balls to acknowledge this, now let them get on with it without continually vilifying and ridiculing them for the sake of it.
I don't see how killing off the entertainment commissions will help the channel. If all the commissions are News based will it become too similar to the BBC/ITV offerings? If so it surely won't pick up many viewers. Depends how much of the required output is current affairs based. With the National/Regional limited current affairs programming, that might be more interesting methinks...depending on the direction they go.
Part of that remit could be on the mayor's weekly questions at city hall which was their original plan before some bright spark decided to turn LL into a youth channel.
I think they will keep London Go but not sure about ' Not the One Show'. It's not great but it is different which is what the channel should be.
I doubt this will happen but they could move it to 10pm where they could open up more subjects with either a 6.30 or 7pm news/current affairs along the lines of LWT's 6 0'clock Live.
Food Junkies, Platform 8 & Electric Theater are good programmes but two of them are never going too be ratings winners.
- concentration on breakfast makes no sense. Not many people watch TV at breakfast and London is well catered for by LBC / Radio 4 / BBC Breakfast at that time.
- STV Glasgow may well be more successful as it provides niche coverage for an area smaller than the ITV / BBC region. LL is effectively duplicating BBC and ITV London news services and isn't significantly more relevant.
- STV Glasgow is effectively making use of its existing news resources (with some additional staff) so has virtually no marginal overhead,
- Making drama and comedy is expensive. Rolling news in peak when BBC and ITV aren't showing local news (a la NY1) plus bought in drama the rest of the time would at least give the station an identity and would focus resources.
All broadcasters today are so corporate and establishment.
There is money in socialism and attacking the establishment, but no one can bring themselves to do it. Against their "religion" apparently.
If a broadcaster came along that wasn't about propping up the owners other business interests or toadying up to the neoliberal agenda I think they would do quite well.
All broadcasters today are so corporate and establishment.
There is money in socialism and attacking the establishment, but no one can bring themselves to do it. Against their "religion" apparently.
If a broadcaster came along that wasn't about propping up the owners other business interests or toadying up to the neoliberal agenda I think they would do quite well.
Smash the Tories!
Except, running a TV station requires money these anti-Establishment types probably don't have...
I see that London Live has tweaked its evening schedule from today, with the demise of London ago and Not the One Show. There is now an Evening News bulletin 6-6.30 followed by The Evening Show between 6.30 and 7.30.
I guess the goal for this is to start entertainment programming half an hour earlier, as no one I know in London will be home from work to see a news bulletin at 6pm...
Watch the new Evening news & The Evening show & have to say it has vastly improved. They still have problems with their OB links & one link should be used for a news story but we had one on the Arsenal game in a pub & another entertainment link.
The Evening show seems to work better with two presenters & is very good for arts & whats on however their was still a bit of 'The one show' after 7pm. I don't mind as long as they mix up the guess & not woffle on about dresses or how wonderful the Mayor is.
What a surprise 'SOFTCOM' have allowed them to change the terms of their licence.
Does that particular regulator ever stand up to any media organisation?
Anyway, I really don't think this local TV experiment is going to work. We already have far too many channels in the UK showing far too much filler. rubbish, and repeats. There's only so much advertising to go round and commercial broadcasters are struggling already to make money.
Local TV works in places like the US because the local stations are affiliated with a larger network, a bit like ITV used to work.. Tiny stations without any network affliliation are not going to work. There are so many channels broadcasting in the UK which already get officially zero ratings.
The only reason these channels were supposed to exist is because of the local component, else they are just another generic channel showing old TV programmes.
So yet again a private firm is allowed to be incompetent and gains government support to help it survive.
Amazing how ideology can cause people to do the most insane of things. Private Sector = Good. It's like a religion!
Watch the new Evening news & The Evening show & have to say it has vastly improved. They still have problems with their OB links & one link should be used for a news story but we had one on the Arsenal game in a pub & another entertainment link.
The Evening show seems to work better with two presenters & is very good for arts & whats on however their was still a bit of 'The one show' after 7pm. I don't mind as long as they mix up the guess & not woffle on about dresses or how wonderful the Mayor is.
I agree and yes whilst they still have problems with their OB links, they have clearly listened to viewer feedback and worked very hard to improve their live output. Finally we may have a credible alternative to BBC and ITV London.
Comments
It`s bloody abysmal and everyone knows it, except those who work there it would seem!
It's the general public who have shown no interest.
No private firm "deserves" to survive!, that's the point of the free market.
And LL is in no way effective. It's a failure.
Local World posts adjusted profits of £38.9m
Seems to work well for every other channel in the UK, and in fact America too (which is a similar system).
As others have said, no channel deserves to survive, especially one that has only been going a few months. You either give the viewers what they want and survive, or don't and close.
I receive it in Luton, not as high strength but fine most of the time it seems.
Only programme I regularly watch is Food Junkies, though it's repeated (like everything) so much that I only stumble on ones I've already seen now, and when I last tried there was no series link.
I think there is too little actual news content which it could do in the evening, get out there to places covering things that don't make the BBC/itv programmes. At the moment it certainly would not be somewhere I went to find out what was happening in London, definitely not in the evening which is the only time I would watch.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/aug/14/london-live-london-evening-standard
The Tube documentary has got a lot more airing recently & comedy seems to do ok. But they need to be making their own shows more which they can sell on.
Platform 8 aside, their news & current affairs is dire & they seriously need a decent evening news service IMO.
The report indicates that staff are devastated by the decision. London Live intends to align its output more closely with that of its parent company, publisher of the Evening Standard.
More here from The Guardian site
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/18/london-live-evgeny-lebedev-evening-standard
This is exactly what the remit should have been from launch and this ties in neatly with increasing the age demographic, I even suggested this to them in an e-mail shortly after launch; I also expressed my incredulity that the well paid and supposedly experienced media guys they had hired could get it so wrong. The owners of ESTV put their faith in their ability and they let everyone down including the viewers.
Mistakes were made in the beginning, although not all bad, they have had the balls to acknowledge this, now let them get on with it without continually vilifying and ridiculing them for the sake of it.
Who made you king of the forums?
Part of that remit could be on the mayor's weekly questions at city hall which was their original plan before some bright spark decided to turn LL into a youth channel.
I think they will keep London Go but not sure about ' Not the One Show'. It's not great but it is different which is what the channel should be.
I doubt this will happen but they could move it to 10pm where they could open up more subjects with either a 6.30 or 7pm news/current affairs along the lines of LWT's 6 0'clock Live.
Food Junkies, Platform 8 & Electric Theater are good programmes but two of them are never going too be ratings winners.
Queen dear if you please!
- concentration on breakfast makes no sense. Not many people watch TV at breakfast and London is well catered for by LBC / Radio 4 / BBC Breakfast at that time.
- STV Glasgow may well be more successful as it provides niche coverage for an area smaller than the ITV / BBC region. LL is effectively duplicating BBC and ITV London news services and isn't significantly more relevant.
- STV Glasgow is effectively making use of its existing news resources (with some additional staff) so has virtually no marginal overhead,
- Making drama and comedy is expensive. Rolling news in peak when BBC and ITV aren't showing local news (a la NY1) plus bought in drama the rest of the time would at least give the station an identity and would focus resources.
http://www.rapidtvnews.com/2014091635296/ofcom-rejects-changes-to-london-local-tv-refresh.html?utm_campaign=connected-tv-market-to-near-1bn-mark-by-2020&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_302#axzz3EolqsOFj
There is money in socialism and attacking the establishment, but no one can bring themselves to do it. Against their "religion" apparently.
If a broadcaster came along that wasn't about propping up the owners other business interests or toadying up to the neoliberal agenda I think they would do quite well.
Smash the Tories!
Except, running a TV station requires money these anti-Establishment types probably don't have...
I guess the goal for this is to start entertainment programming half an hour earlier, as no one I know in London will be home from work to see a news bulletin at 6pm...
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/08/london-live-cut-local-programming-ofcom
The Evening show seems to work better with two presenters & is very good for arts & whats on however their was still a bit of 'The one show' after 7pm. I don't mind as long as they mix up the guess & not woffle on about dresses or how wonderful the Mayor is.
Does that particular regulator ever stand up to any media organisation?
Anyway, I really don't think this local TV experiment is going to work. We already have far too many channels in the UK showing far too much filler. rubbish, and repeats. There's only so much advertising to go round and commercial broadcasters are struggling already to make money.
Local TV works in places like the US because the local stations are affiliated with a larger network, a bit like ITV used to work.. Tiny stations without any network affliliation are not going to work. There are so many channels broadcasting in the UK which already get officially zero ratings.
So yet again a private firm is allowed to be incompetent and gains government support to help it survive.
Amazing how ideology can cause people to do the most insane of things. Private Sector = Good. It's like a religion!
I agree and yes whilst they still have problems with their OB links, they have clearly listened to viewer feedback and worked very hard to improve their live output. Finally we may have a credible alternative to BBC and ITV London.