Drawing the line between local and regional

The news that STV - the operator of Scotland's two Channel 3 licences - has won the local licences for Edinburgh and Glasgow is another interesting twist in the embryonic story of local TV.

At first glance, it appeared a strange notion for the regional, heritage broadcaster to be setting up in seeming competition with itself.   If its local offering were to prove 'too good', then the regional ratings would surely suffer.   A quality localised service (of the kind an established broadcaster like STV is surely capable) could tempt viewers to rethink their attachment to a wider region and become as alligned with the idea of local news in vision as they are with it in print.

Even more curious is the fact that STV already has one of the most localised services on the ITV network, with separate programmes for North, West and East Scotland and further sub-regional opt-outs within them.   As this blog has mused elsewhere, viewers seem to respond well to the regional so long as it is relevant - a feat STV has apparently achieved.   Direct competition from well-resourced local TV might result in a fight to the death - of either one service or the other.

Yet the channel says it can create local TV stations which can "complement" the established output.   And there are undoubtedly benefits to the idea of having an interest in both regional and local services.   Clearly, there is massive potential for cross-promotion.   News-in-brief items that would never make full packages on a regional programme could be highlighted as being covered in more detail on the local channel, for those interested in finding out more.   One of the biggest challenges facing local TV is generating an awareness amongst its potential audience.   The other big challenge - financial stability - will be partly addressed by economies of scale and use of shared facilities, which ultimately might prove the difference between viability and failure.

The heavy involvement of the broadcast journalism courses at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities not only provides an enviable training ground for students, but also ensures that the local services will look somewhat different to their regional counterparts.   That is not to belittle student efforts in producing high quality output (as one who has sweated blood over in-house university news programmes), but the local stations will necessarily be offering a different style of journalism - and could even flourish for it.

Scheduling will be a trickier issue to resolve.   The local stations are tied to broadcasting news and current affairs output at peak time, inevitably prompting a clash with the flagship regional programmes at some point.   Yet even this shouldn't prove an insurmountable problem.

Perhaps the biggest benefit to the channel of being involved at both the regional and local level is also the most obvious one - whatever choice viewers make, there is every chance they will still be choosing STV.

What next for regional news?

So, where does OFCOM's slightly surprising announcement of its preferred bidders for the ITV regional news pilots leave this interminable debate?   The failure of ITN to win control of any of the three schemes can surely not have been the outcome anybody expected.   It means that the Scottish and Tyne Tees/Border pilots are to be operated by newspaper groups and television production companies with little or no track record in broadcast news.   That doesn't mean it is impossible for them to be editorially successful, but plans in the Scottish bid to include ultra-local news provided by community groups and children has raised concerns that the ouput might be rather parochial for regional television news.

In the Scottish case, it also creates the invidious situation of requiring STV to surrender its regional news slots, in spite of the fact that, unlike ITV Plc in England and Wales, it has never sought to do so.   Indeed, STV has increased its sub-regional opt-outs and, as part of the ITN consortium for the Scottish pilot, planned to create a more rounded, outward-looking news offering in Scotland.   It does seem a perverse outcome that STV might be forced out of regional news provision when it has never suggested that it wanted to walk away from its licence obligation in that regard.   The pre-occupation with trialling the independently-financed consortia in the nations, as well as the regions, meant that the possibility of such an outcome was overlooked.

Added to the mix is an apparent softening of ITV's position when it comes to the future of regional news on the channel.   Chairman Archie Norman has said it is an important strand of ITV's output, a very diffferent tone to the one set by his predecessor, Michael Grade, who started the stopwatch ticking on the demise of the channel's newsgathering presence in the regions.   

Meanwhile, the Tories remain implaccably opposed to the IFNC concept and, with the contracts now unable to be signed this side of a general election, they could be in a position to scupper the entire scheme.   As could ITV, if it decides not to surrender its airtime and either maintains its own output or walks away from regional news altogether.

So at least the future looks a bit more certain, then.