After dismissing ESTV’s first – and more radical – attempt to reduce the number hours of local programming the new London Live channel must air, a second attempt has succeeded, Ofcom has announced.
Following the first decision, which the regulator dismissed because it believed it would “substantially alter the character of the service”, a follow-up proposal was today accepted because it was “significantly more limited in scope than its previous application”.
The new proposal will see local programming repeats reduce from 10 hours per day to six, and from an hour and a half to zero during the evening peak-time.
In statement, Ofcom said: “Having carefully assessed ESTV’s latest request, Ofcom has decided that the latest changes requested would not constitute a departure from the character of the service, and that they should be allowed.
“The volume of news, current affairs and original programming broadcast by London Live will not be affected.”
When Ofcom awarded the licence to ESTV in February 2013, it was granted public service broadcaster (PSB) status, meaning that the channel would receive certain privileges received by other PSBs, as long as it agreed to fulfil specific licence obligations to provide a defined amout of local TV.
Angered by the original request, Channel 4 formally told Ofcom last month that PSB status should not be given lightly, and that by significantly reducing public service obligations so soon after they were agreed, ESTV would set an “unwelcome precedent.”
Mark Errington, CEO at BroadStream, said: “The news that London Live has successfully negotiated a reduction in the amount of local content it will have to show on air, albeit on its second attempt, will not have come as a great surprise to many. However, surely this was precisely the type of content that London Live and the other local TV channels have been launched to air.
“In fact, research we commissioned earlier this year points to local content being the key to success for these new local TV channels, with 70% of potential viewers most interested in watching local news programmes, over half (52%) wanting to watch documentaries about their local areas and almost a third (30%) keen to catch-up on their local sports teams.
“This offers channels like London Live the opportunity to broadcast a wide variety of local content that could be created relatively easily, particularly given its close ties to the Evening Standard newspaper.
“This year has already been important for the local TV experiment, with both success and failure in the headlines in recent months, but we’ll have to wait and see what the decision to reduce the ‘local’ in local TV means.”
Ofcom’s full report can be downloaded here.
