--Service will Develop Networks of Local Contributors
The BBC has begun a nine-month pilot of an ultra-local interactive TV news service in six areas of the UK's West Midlands region: Birmingham; the Black Country; Coventry and Warwickshire; Herefordshire and Worcestershire; Stoke and Staffordshire; and Shropshire. The corporation's plans for the service were first revealed by its director-general, Mark Thompson, at a Confederation of British Industry (CBI) lunch in Birmingham earlier this year (see [itvt] Issue 6.18 Part 3). The service is available on digital satellite and on-demand on the BBC's Web site (www.bbc.co.uk/localtv). Digital satellite viewers can press the red button to see 10-minute bulletins from their immediate area (featuring news stories, entertainment news, travel news, and weather information) at fixed times within each hour: the Birmingham bulletin appears on the hour; the Coventry and Warwickshire bulletin at ten past the hour; the Hereford and Worcester bulletin at 20 past; the Black Country bulletin at half past; the Shropshire bulletin at 20 to; and the Staffordshire bulletin at 10 to. Broadband users, meanwhile, have the choice of watching the 10-minute bulletins in their entirety or divided into separate story "chunks."
The bulletins are produced by teams of specially trained video journalists that the BBC has located in each area: one journalist in each team is responsible for developing networks of local contributors and community correspondents, since one of the main goals of the pilot is to test a variety of ways of commissioning user-generated content from individuals and organizations in each locality (according to the BBC, the pilot builds on the lessons learned from such BBC initiatives as Digital Stories and Video Nation). "We know there's a strong demand for a more local television service, but until now the technology has not allowed us to deliver it," David Holdsworth, head of regional and local programs at BBC West Midlands, who is also serving as the pilot service's project manager, said in a prepared statement. "It's particularly exciting that local people will be able use their own cameras to help film the community part of the bulletins too."
Once the pilot is complete, the BBC says that a "rigorous independent public value test" will be conducted, including an assessment of the service's market impact in the West Midlands and detailed scrutiny by the corporation's Board of Governors. If the latter give the green light, the BBC plans to introduce around 60 similar services across the UK. The pilot is part of the BBC's "Out of London" strategy, which is intended to counter the dominance that London has over the UK's cultural life by moving BBC departments to other regions of the UK and by creating more programming that reflects the interests of those regions. (Note: the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, the Independent Television Network, also recently launched an ultra-local news service, dubbed "ITV Local." For more on this, see [itvt] Issue 6.39 Part 3.)
Click http://www.itvt.com to subscribe to our free email newsletter, which contains all the news stories you see on this Web site, and additional breaking news and scoops, in-depth features, interviews, screenshots, videos, and other exclusive content you will not find anywhere else.
