Let's make TV local, Hunt urges
Tuesday, 28 September 2010 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has unveiled his plans to decentralise television - with the creation of new local multimedia channels.
In a speech to the Royal Television Society he explained he wanted to help the coalition government implement its Big Society agenda by making it easier for communities to come together through TV.
He proposed a network of local cross-platform multimedia TV channels which will combine together to bring down costs and encourage nationwide advertising deals.
"In the weeks and months ahead, I will be looking at a variety of ways in which our existing public service broadcasters can play their part in supporting the development of a viable and sustainable local TV landscape," he said.
The government is removing rules banning local cross-media ownership, redefining 'public service broadcasting' to emphasise local content and plans to encourage the BBC to work in partnership with new local media providers.
Legislation will also be passed to force electronic programme guides to include the new stations.
"If we remain centralised, top-down and London-centric - in our media provision as in the rest of government - we will fail to reflect the real demand for stronger local identity that has always existed and that new technologies are now allowing us to meet," he concluded.
"But if we respond to the challenge we will be able to show that one of the world's most open, diverse and plural democracies has once again been able to reinvent itself as the country to watch and not the country to leave behind."
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