Local TV

Based on what I've seen, we have a four-tier level of local tv output.

Mainstream:
STV Glasgow

Near mainstream on a low budget:
Mustard TV
Notts TV
Made in Bristol
Estuary TV
Latest TV

Alternative with a major backer:
London Live

Community run projects
Sheffield Live! TV
NVTV Belfast

You can add Made in Cardiff to the near-mainstream list, it launches today.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-29617740

Is anyone going to be capturing this historic moment of the launch of local tv in Cardiff ?

Well I finally managed to watch some Made In Cardiff. Made TV seem to have bought in content from Sky Vision and some pan-regional ITV shows made by independent producers. The content is watchable, but surely the name of the channel is flawed from the outset if hardly any programming is actually Made In Cardiff.

I can't get any captures, but the idents are very generic and aside from the IN CARDIFF tagged onto the MADE logo, there's no real local identity.

What's the standard of the news offering ? Is it more Notts TV than Sheffield Live ?

Im starting to think ITV/BBC should have 2/3 control over these Local TV channels with another 1/3 from outside local company.

The content, news etc is become pretty poor in many areas in England.

Why?
To take a two thirds joint control that would also mean taking some form of budget share as well.

Doubt the BBC would want to see a further reduction in the licence fee pot they have to spend, and ITV wouldn't be to happy at shelling out either - given the fantastically low ad revenue these channels are likely to generate , so no chance on getting any sort of return on the 'forced investment' you propose.

I think the opposite. I think they should be completely stand-alone, with no Licence Fee funding, or central Government funding. I also think it should be up to the individual groups to apply to broadcast, rather than Government going "we need a local TV supplier for Alfreton" and ending up having to award it to the best of a bad bunch.

If there was public demand for these services, they'd have no problem bringing in revenue to fund their broadcasts. Maybe you could have some sort of PSB funding bid process to pay for things that wouldn't be commercially viable, but useful to the local communities (you could even devolve that funding to the appropriate local council), but otherwise they should be self supporting.

But even more than that, I certainly don't want to see a round of mergers ending up with another "regional" network, controlled from London, or even Glasgow - I think STV should have been excluded from bidding for the Scottish services, because they are the incumbent regional supplier - if they believed there was a demand for these services they could have already provided them, with the ITV network as a backbone.

Actully with stv, it did see a demand thus created edinburgh 6pm news.

I haven't seen the news offering yet but will stay tuned for a few hours.

The evening's local programming has just kicked in, with an hour long programme covering a recent gay film festival that was held in the city ("The Iris Prize"). It's very well made with interviews with local Welsh film makers/clips of the films and it's a good example of making the best of a local event such as a festival. It could pass for an ITV Wales show.

The next programme is called "A Taste of Things To Come" which is "A preview of the programmes to come on Made in Cardiff with clips from What's Occuring Cardiff? Turning Tables, 1-2-1, Left Field, Right Pitch and much more".

With all these programmes promised, I'm wondering whether Made TV are soft launching and will develop their schedule further when they go live on Sky (in November)

If there's any involvement by the BBC/ITV to be had, maybe as part of their public service remit they could open up their archives for a reduced rate in order to 'beef up' the local channels' schedules. At least then all programming is still fairly relevant to the local area, and I think this is a strength of the STV local channels.

It would be far better than cheap and irrelevant national fillers. I'm surprised Movies, Games & Videos hasn't made an appearance yet...

Here are some crude screenshots of Made In Cardiff taken with my phone camera:

Weather (map is 3d, animated and flies around the region)
There is a city centre forecast, which is quite pointless as there's never different weather in any part of the city. This is followed by a 'regional' forecast which is basically South Wales, and then a five day forecast:



A promo endcap (complete with typo)


Other highlights include a cookery show with ITV Wales' Chris Segar, and a what looks like a very well made arts documentary about a harpist whose name escapes me.