Let’s argue about the future and the future is now. So said Jeff Henry, CEO of ITV’s consumer division, at the South Coast launch of the broadcaster’s experimental local service. And you know what, I think he’s right….up to a point.
ITV has dipped its toe into the world of local television for Brighton and Hastings – ahead of the launch of BBC local services in the Midlands next month – and for the first time newspapers in the region might sit up and take notice.
For those of us who’ve been struggling with web streaming over the years – agonisingly slow downloads, revealing images hardly worth watching – the video on this experimental service is exceptional, not just in the player window, but also when expanded to full screen. The pictures look almost like real telly.
More importantly, ITV is aiming to fund the service with sponsorship and local advertising, if successful, threatening one of the local papers’ prime sources of income and the reason many people buy the papers.
ITV does not do anything for nothing and the local service will have to make money if it is going to survive beyond the three month trial, let alone expand to then towns. There’s not much new money about and, if it works, ITV local will be taking revenue from papers. One area they will target is house sales. Many estate agents are already offering virtual “tours” of even mid price homes on their own web sites – here will be the opportunity for full blown on-line video.
ITV, of course, has never been local – it has been a regional service. With the exceptions of Border and Channel, even the smaller ITV regions cover several counties and have a number of different daily or evening papers in their region. Those papers carry scores of stories every day. The “flagship” ITV six o’clock news programmes – or their BBC equivalents for that matter – carry around fifteen stories a night selected from a far bigger patch. They never reach the depth of coverage that newspapers deliver.
Having said that. I have always believed that local television will be here to stay. Brave attempts by early RSL (Restricted Service Licence) stations have largely foundered. Live TV and Channel One local news was abandoned, despite having backers with deep pockets. Some have survived – in Oxford, Liverpool and Leicester, for example – but the need to produce high quality programming over a period of time, with traditional transmission costs – but restricted transmission areas – has always worked against them.
I have also believed for some time that some of the obstacles will be overcome one day – when video streaming technology improved considerably and we were able to view those pictures not just on a PC, which itself is a selfish or lonely form of viewing, but also on the telly with others, in the comfort of your living room.
Judging by what we saw at the ITV local launch in Brighton, this is about to happen. The video quality is down to a system dubbed “largestreaming” by its developer Narrowstep. It sends a cookie to the user’s PC to discover the connection speed and then delivers the television pictures at the appropriate bandwidth. This doesn’t require a set top box – and some point out it does not require a television licence either! Hardware will soon be available to deliver the PC output to the television set.
But it will only become viable if the content is there – content that will drive the viewers to the website. ITV local’s service for Brighton and Hastings has seven “channels”. These include a customized weather bulletin, What’s On, a showcase for local film makers and, a “classifieds” channel, that ITV’s launch director Lindsay Charlton hopes will be used by sellers shooting videos of their goods and loading their “advert” onto the system.
The News Channel has a fixed schedule of “programmes”, which includes a re-run of the previous night’s Meridian news programme and repeats of local documentaries. As a regional broadcaster, I was always frustrated that the ITV main bulletins were shown at a time when most “news viewers” were still on their way home, so a second opportunity to reach the audience would always be welcome. This, in itself, does not offer much more than the video recorder or PVR box already provides. It might take out the hassle of making sure you record the programme, but its control buttons are currently limited. There are also specific news reports about the area, but again these are taken from the existing output, and already shown on the terrestrial services.
ITV will not put additional resource into shooting and editing more localised stories from its Brighton bureau. Instead the hope is that most of the content will come from the public – it’s time for Citizen TV. A locked-off web cam can produce “live” pictures of a local event, viewers will be encouraged to shoot not just their own adverts, but also their own news stories.
“We are really going to create a citizen television channel where you can make your own content, upload it free and build your own news whether it’s jam making, surfing or environmental damage on the South Downs,” said Charlton at the ITV local launch. As I said earlier, up to a point: Homemade tv news might stick out like a sore thumb against the glossy offerings from the Meridian archive. The service carries the ITV label and will need to meet compliance standards. “We will not damage the ITV brand,” says Henry.
What do the papers make of this? Ironically, the ITV service was launched on the same day that Pat Loughrey, BBC’s Director of Nations and Regions, walked into the Lion’s den at the Society of Editors conference to face criticism of the Corporation’s planned foray into local news services. As part of his defence, Loughrey himself suggested that the ITV model would be more of a threat to newspapers than BBC local television.
It will be interesting to see if the regional newspapers papers decided to play the same game. They don’t have the back catalogue of professionally-made features that ITV can call upon, but they are far greater generators of that valuable local content. A quick look on the Brighton Argus website not only shows a long list of up-to-date local stories, but also has a comprehensive archive going back seven years. Meridian has a handful of editorial staff based in Brighton – the Argus has around 30 reporters and cameramen gathering news in the area.
So convergence may not be just a product of web-casting and broadcasting, it could also see a marriage of print skills, internet and telly. Could there be some coming together of local papers and commercial broadcasters? During my time with ITV in the Midlands we kept up a healthy dialogue with the Express and Star, whose parent group has already gone into broadcasting and runs local radio stations in the area. However, Michael Beard the Group Editor of Newsquest (Sussex) declined the opportunity to comment on the ITV experiment on his patch.
Perhaps Loughrey’s tongue was not altogether in his cheek when he told the Society of Editor’s conference: “The BBC is keen to use the local knowledge that newspapers have by buying from them, on a story-by-story basis, video journalism rushes. These items would be edited by the BBC, but there would be full screen accreditation for the journalists and for the papers which employ them. We also plan to run regular reviews of the local press on the new service. We hope to use key correspondents on our output.”
So the BBC is trying to woo newspapers by offering to fund print reporters’ excursions into video journalism and with the added bonus of coverage in a review of the local press. The BBC experiment will be funded by licence payer’s money. The ITV pilot is not. As Henry said: “This is not a public service. This is a business to us.”
The ITV local service experiment can be seen on: www.itvlocal.tv
The Brighton Argus web site is: www.theargus.co.uk
Laurie Upshon is a Media Consultant and former Controller of News at ITV Central