Channel 6 offers alternative local TV plan

Channel 6 is aiming to revitalise the government's faltering local TV plans with a new scheme that it claims would support "up to 200 completely independent local TV stations".

Earlier in the month, the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed a significant shift in the government's policy for local TV, effectively dropping the idea of creating a national "spine" channel on Freeview for delivering local services.

Hunt said that a "bottom up" approach is now the preferred strategy and called for proposals on how to support a range of "individually licenced stations".

Channel 6, which previously submitted a bid to take on the national Freeview channel, has responded by putting forward a "radical new plan" that would use spectrum freed up by Ofcom to support up to 200 local TV stations, backed by 39 "locally-owned network affiliates".

The hybrid model would involve local media groups either using the UK-wide network to air local content and benefit from national TV ad revenues, or partner with the scheme to use Channel 6's infrastructure to cut costs.

Richard Horwood, the chief executive of Channel 6, claimed that the new local TV scheme would allow the culture secretary to "have his cake and eat it too".

"Under our new plan, those that don't want to be affiliated to the national network can still draw on its valuable resources, while being completely free to operate and broadcast their own kind of programming in the way that suits their ambitions and their community," he said.

"Our Freeview transmission architecture, which has always been based on the so-called 'Geographic Interleaved' signal-buffering spectrum freed up by digital switchover, will allow for some 200 separate local areas to be served with their own independent channel, over and above our 39 local network affiliates.

"This is a far better solution than just hoping that standalone local channels can succeed without any support, and history has proven time and again that they simply can't survive without help in the UK's decidedly national TV market."

Horwood added: "We agree with the consultation's conclusion that there is no 'one size fits all' model. Now local operators have the choice of working with us as affiliates, using our support as independent stations, or providing non-commercial programming to our local community channels. In short, our new approach allows Jeremy Hunt to have his cake and eat it too."

According to Channel 6, the first network affiliate under its scheme would be Britain's longest-running local TV service, Channel 7 in Grimsby.

Channel 7 executive producer Lia Nici said: "The Channel 6 affiliate model inevitably requires some common policies and procedures across the network, otherwise it couldn't function, but it's all about raising the standard of all local programming to what's expected by viewers of UK TV channels and advertisers.

"We at Channel 7 are excited by the prospect of producing truly local programming with high production values, and engaging with a wider local audience across a range of TV platforms."