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.