Laughton gives BBC Local TV good report

Plans to create a network of 66 local BBC TV stations were given the okay this week from an independent report written by former Meridian chief executive Roger Laughton.

The report for BBC management says that there is a public appetite for local TV, although consumers are hostile towards regional newspaper owners.

Last week director general Mark Thompson made an effort to placate said regional newspaper groups who were angry at the BBC local proposals, offering to trade with them to grow the overall market. As quoted in The Guardian he said: "In addition to our own local and regional newsrooms, we want to draw on the news-gathering clout of the UK's local and regional newspapers - and we'll pay for it," he told a Society of Editors conference in Glasgow.

In the 'local' pilot project in the West Midlands, on which Laughton's report is based, six regions were shown tailored news every hour. This attracted younger audiences and showed that user-generated content worked well and had the potential to become an important ingredient of the BBC's local programming.

The report indicated that broadband TV could be the distribution channel for the channels rather than digital TV. Partnerships between the BBC and community organisations could also help in the process of the digital switchover.

The intention of the report is to help BBC management decide whether or not to ask the newly formed BBC Trust for permission to roll out a service of local TV news across the UK.

Questions over funding were also raised in the report, indicating that the project would be
more expensive than originally expected.