Re: Local TV
 

I think the issue is with That’s TV in particular as the channels they had from the start have never appeared on Virgin.

They took over the STV2 slot in Scotland and never took up the Virgin slot they left behind.

Re: Local TV
 

do any scots remember when Telewest had their own local Tv where it covered the concerts in Edinburgh. id just wished they'd bring it back!

Re: Local TV
 

WE have a local Oxford channel on Comtel. A think it used to be something like a 30 minute programme repeated at several times. A new programme each week.

Re: Local TV
 

Yes.

I think it was called Edinburgh Festival and was on Telewest Channel 400.

We also has an local channel of L!VE TV called Edinburgh L!VE TV I think it was on Channel 18 before Telewest want March/April 1999.

---------- Post added at 15:18 ---------- Previous post was at 15:12 ----------

Oh the good times.

STV Local was later known as STV2 then 9 months later sold to the owners of That's TV.

Virgin Media drop STV2 on the day STV hand STV2 slots over to That's TV.

Now we have only got 50mins of local news every week the rest is the same as That's local in England.

Re: Local TV
 

Wish we had a local TV channel for news . BBC does not do " local" news we get is national Welsh news , Bristol is more " local" than Wrexham to me .The national news is more often than not " English" government presented as national. One of the few things l miss from USA tv! Is local channels

Re: Local TV
 

To be fair that's not been the case since the original franchises were all taken over.

Re: Local TV
 

I still can't believe that BBC 1 HD doesn't have local news, just a stupid hold screen.


I mean FFS this is the 21st century

Re: Local TV
 

Your suprise me still no local news on BBC 1hd seems to have been on BBC 1 Wales hd for ever . Can't believe Wales are ahead of England :D

Re: Local TV
 

The Nations have it (and have done for ages), just not the English Regions.

The BBC said earlier this year the BBC1 English Regions will be HD by the end of 2022.

The potentially better news is that just the other day the BBC's own TV schedule page suggested the English HD Regions will start on 21st October THIS year.

The chances are that the rough later time period in 2022 is for Freeview, where it's more complicated to implement, the imminent October date is plausible for other platforms.

When ITV made most of its regions HD recently on Satellite/Cable it came about rather quickly once they got going, so it's entirely possible the new BBC-Sky deal announced yesterday (or was it the day before? I forget) included satellite carriage on Sky's transponders to necessitate launching the English HD regions. This is likely what ITV did in their recent Sky deal to manage it.

It feels like aeons for the Scottish version.

Re: Local TV
 

As you says RXTV says BBC One English HD regions HD may launch as early as October 21th.

https://rxtvinfo.com/2021/bbc-one-hd...art-imminently

Rumours says that BBC ALBA HD and BBC Parliament HD may launch on BBC iPlayer (and due to BBC new Sky deal they may launch on Virgin Media and Sky).

Re: Local TV
 

And some parts of the UK had a local rolling news channel on cable during the mid 1990s called Channel One plus The Weather Channel/Weather Network carried local forecasts.

Re: Local TV
 

Seen that listing in my free copy of the months listings but in my area we got 16 screens broadcasting channels with sound coming from Clyde 1. With information also appearing when something was set to come in my area.

We also got local ads for things like motors when channels did not broadcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaZ6j131p_Y

Re: Local TV
 

What were those 16 channels?

Re: Local TV
 

The 16 channels was showing live streams of 16 channels that was on Telewest at the time.

They has Sky One on it with "21" on that screen. And Sky Movies Plus on it with "45" on that screen. All 16 channels has to be broadcasting 24/7.

---------- Post added at 22:37 ---------- Previous post was at 22:23 ----------

Something like the start of the following YouTube video but 4 channels added in the middle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyThnH2jZlY

Re: Local TV
 

Right, so it was 16 streams and I guess on some, more than one channel shared a single 'stream' eg TCC and The Family 16 streams but maybe more than 16 channels being available.

The channels sharing a stream in the mid-1990s included TCC sharing with The Family Channel, Cartoon Network sharing with TNT and Nickelodeon sharing with Paramount.

---------- Post added at 19:37 ---------- Previous post was at 19:32 ----------

And going back to local TV on analogue cable in the mid-1990s. In my area the local channel initially consisted of nothing more than a text and graphics service.

Later on, during the Cable & Wireless period, a weekly 30-minute local features show was launched which was broadcast on a loop, sharing time with a programme about cable television and possibly a couple of other programmes as well. I think the local programme was shown every two hours throughout the seven day period.

The only other local 'content' was on The Weather Network whereby the local forecast for the franchise area was displayed as text information on the bottom of the screen.

Re: Local TV
 

Talking about sharing

This was an good one

Monday to Thursday:
7am Sky Soap
11am Sky Travel
4pm History Channel
7pm SciFi
10pm Sky Sports Gold
1am SciFi?
4am Christian Channel Europe

Friday:
7am Sky Soap
11am Sky Travel
4pm History Channel
7pm Sky Sports 2
1am SciFi?
4am Christian Channel Europe

Weekends:
7am Sky Sports 2
1am SciFi?
4am Christian Channel Europe

?I think SciFi was on at 1am.

Re: Local TV
 

You are correct the Sci-fi Channel broadcast on analogue satellite as part of the Sky package each night between 1am and 4am.

On cable, the channel broadcast its full hours which were 8am to 4am.

Re: Local TV
 

There was also some sharing on cable, coming directly from the satellite feed. I recall

6am CNBC
12noon Trouble
8pm to 6am Bravo

---------- Post added at 21:12 ---------- Previous post was at 21:10 ----------

Back to the original topic, and i think it's such a shame that this local ability that cable offers isn't being used for local programming these days. If it was seemed to be possible in the late 1990s then why not do it now?

Re: Local TV
 

Probably because it wasn't commercially viable?

Re: Local TV
 

It is possible to do it like that now, but to be honest, it was mind-boggling boring. The presenters droned on and had no media skills and I would be surprised if many watched it.

The only way you can make local TV work is to have national programming with regular scheduled spots for the local stuff, supported by advertising. Unless the content is of interest and the channel is run professionally, no-one will watch it.

Trying to operate these channels in isolation from one another just doesn’t work, I’m afraid.

Re: Local TV
 

If only it was like the Cable Access channel in Wayne's World.

Party time! Excellent! :dunce::D

Re: Local TV
 

That's how it seems to work in America so I see no reason why it can't work here.

Re: Local TV
 

Nor do I - it seems that nobody in media in the U.K. seems to have the vision or enthusiasm for the concept.

Re: Local TV
 

In the 1990s, there was an attempt to launch a network of local news channels under the banner of Channel One. I think it ran for around four years (1994 to 1998?)

Another excellent local channel, this time on air in the mid to late 2000s, was the excellent Channel M in Manchester. It was a 24/7 local channel with several hours each day devoted to news, including a two-hour rolling news programme at teatime, at teatime plus a weekday breakfast show. The rest of the output was filled by local magazine programmes.

Re: Local TV
 

There was an attempt to launch an analogue Terrestrial local channel here some time after(as far as I recall) Channel 5 launched, they got as far as making some short content and broadcasting it on a promo loop for a month or two, but it never properly launched. I was under the impression it was part of a wider enterprise called TV Local given the way I recall it being talked about in the local paper prior to it starting. Ours was to be called TV Local Perth.

When the current DTT Local TV project was started I was surprised the nearest license was only for Dundee as we had this previous attempt, it seemed good business sense to target a slightly wider area. They could've called it Tayside TV. As it is we can actually receive the current incarnation even though we're not in the official intended catchment area.

Re: Local TV
 

More cuts to local news on that's TV

https://rxtvinfo.com/2021/further-cuts-at-thats-tv

---------- Post added at 18:03 ---------- Previous post was at 17:39 ----------

About 20 years ago I had an channel called Thistle Television and it has an news story from my local area and I seen my late Dad walking by an local shop in a high street when Thistle Television was filming across a road.

Re: Local TV
 

And in Greater Manchester we had the excellent Channel M, which effectively closed down in 2009 when it went into a hold situation, and never came out of that hold position.

It's such a shame that local television has never really take off in the UK, especially in highly populated areas like London, Manchester and the West Midlands.