The Case Against Local TV
December 14, 2011
By John Mountford | No Comments
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Whilst JMS is supporting Norwich’s bid for a Local TV franchise, we’re not blind to the many hurdles Local TV has to face. Quality content generation, editorial standards, creating audience loyalty – all these and more have to be taken on board. But overshadowing them all is finance. Even if a groundswell of local support were to exist (barely evident as yet) it will be a struggle to create a viable operation on the currently proposed budgets. And long before the Government’s 3 years of pump-priming money runs out, Local TV will need a viable and sustainable source of long term revenue.
Proponents of Local TV point to America. ‘Birmingham, Alabama’ they say ‘has three TV stations. The much larger Birmingham, England has none’. But the American system of affiliates makes national dollars available to local stations (along with sustaining services and other support mechanisms), and the concept of localness is so very different within a country larger than Europe. Also, let’s not forget that Birmingham England already has both BBC and ITV stations which serve their areas well. And although the Regional service they deliver is far from the hyper-local TV the Government envisages, many would argue it is the only viable business model.
In a very thorough blog, Marc Reeves, who chaired the inaugural session of Jeremy Hunt’s roadshow in Birmingham, after elucidating his personal reasons for taking a less than rosy view of the proceedings, eloquently argues one key issue: he doubts enthusiasts’ claims that there are many million pounds of untapped advertising revenue available in major cities like Birmingham. I quote:
“When challenged with the fact that local and regional advertising spend across TV, radio and newspapers have been in freefall for years, proponents claim all of this has gone to Google and is just waiting to be enticed back by Local TV.
I’m staggered at this mix of wrong-headed assumptions and extraordinarily naive optimism.
Most local advertising lost by newspapers to Google (and the web generally) consists of job and car classified ads that can’t transfer to TV, and I question where former regional TV advertisers will suddenly find the budgets for new local services.
In my view, (proponents) will sooner find the Holy Grail than (one firm’s estimate) £7m of new revenues in the Birmingham advertising market.
Of course, if the revenue forecasts are right, but the size of the local advertising cake is finite, then local TV can thrive only at the expense of existing local media. This will of course, lead to a further decline in local radio and newspapers, and the government’s aspiration to help local media generally to thrive will have a net benefit of precisely zero.”
So, to Norwich specifically. Its BBC Local Radio station has its finger on the pulse of the local community, yet it will soon shrink drastically due to BBC cuts. Norwich has a commercial station which operates on a budget comparable to the proposed TV station, but produces little local material beyond news bulletins, and is like most others of similar size, struggling for revenue; and there is a regional radio station which suffers from similar accusations of ‘not enough localness’ as its larger TV counterparts in regional BBC and ITV.
Will these services be outshone by one or two hours each day of hand-held camera-phone video? Will adequate finances flood into supporting a selection of parish-pump issues fronted by junior studio presenters? And could this service really win an audience, and revenues, which its better funded, well-established rivals find elusive? Will advertisers who at present find it difficult to justify the expense of buying mass audiences regionally, think it worth coughing-up to advertise to a comparatively miniscule audience within a few square miles?
And on an editorial level, could this TV station, as Jeremy Hunt hopes, help ‘solve problems’ and give ‘power to people’? Is it likely that (in some cases) student-produced TV could prove more informative and cohesive than an established local newspaper? (and let’s not forget the problems even the best local papers are having).
Finally, before you start quoting ‘people power’ – of the influence of Twitter on the Arab Spring, or the You Tube footage that regularly exposes wrong-doing by hoodies, the police, or politicians, remember that on a daily basis, in most communities, the burning issue is less likely to be riots in the city centre than mild disappointment over the new double yellow lines outside Sainsbury’s. So which major advertisers will stump up the funds to be associated with such trivial hyper-local issues however worthy?
Patrick Peal, of Norwich-based Tribe PR, summed it up nicely.
“Local TV has exciting potential if we can crack the business case – which means making great content that’s affordable,”
Is there anyone in the house skilled at squaring circles?