Changes to Freeview transmission discussion (with a techie edge)

When making a post, please ensure it complies with this site's Main Rules at all times.
  • A glitch with DBR monitoring perhaps? I've seen the overall bit rate drop on some of their logs before then revert to normal after a few days.

    I wouldn't pay too much attention to it unless the results are repeated across other sites. Other transmitter sites aren't currently showing a change.

  • A glitch with DBR monitoring perhaps? I've seen the overall bit rate drop on some of their logs before then revert to normal after a few days.

    I wouldn't pay too much attention to it unless the results are repeated across other sites. Other transmitter sites aren't currently showing a change.

    That was my thinking too. :)

  • https://rxtvinfo.com/2020/local-tv-…5-minutes-a-day

    Surely it's time for Ofcom to take the licences back...

    I agree. What an unmitigated disaster!

    Maybe Sky would be prepared to take on board a new national channel with programmes worth watching which had regular (say every six hours) half-hourly local news bulletins split into regions, with headlines on the hour. Hell, they could give Pick TV a makeover!

    15 minutes a day can hardly be called a local news channel.

  • Local TV was nothing more than Jeremy Hunts Vanity Project; brought in at the time of Cameron's austerity measures.

    I still think it could have worked, but only with a nationwide set of watchable programmes, with intervening local news and other local programmes of interest. A bit like the old ITV, but with more local programming.

    Even London Live didn't work, which really surprised me.

  • I still think it could have worked, but only with a nationwide set of watchable programmes, with intervening local news and other local programmes of interest. A bit like the old ITV, but with more local programming.

    Even London Live didn't work, which really surprised me.

    I agree. :thumbup:

    Needed to be a nationwide channel as a backbone.

  • I still think it could have worked, but only with a nationwide set of watchable programmes, with intervening local news and other local programmes of interest. A bit like the old ITV, but with more local programming.

    Even London Live didn't work, which really surprised me.

    It could have worked if the organisations had actually been interested in provide a local service. Some of these companies seemed more interested in making a quick buck from the BBC funding. After the BBC cash ran out they seemed to lose all interest in producing content.

  • I think that they've tried to do that by most Local TV channels now being consolidated into ownership by only two companies and by using simulcasts from Talking Pictures & CBS Reality.

    The best thing to do would be to let the whole network out to one channel as a quasi national channel service, particularly as Freeview now has reduced capacity and is set to lose even more.

  • The coverage is too patchy for a national channel. Not much thought went into the original concept to be honest.

    I think he meant what Old Boy said, that it should be a channel like Channel 3 (ITV/STV) that had the same shows on every station ouside of regular "local slots". I don't think Richard was suggesting an established channel reverse into the capacity.

    Someone like Channel 4 should've done it in conjunction with ITN.

  • I think he meant what Old Boy said, that it should be a channel like Channel 3 (ITV/STV) that had the same shows on every station ouside of regular "local slots". I don't think Richard was suggesting an established channel reverse into the capacity.

    I get that but my point was that the existing local clusters are too small to form a proper "national" channel. There are many large areas with a high population density that are outside the local clusters. Basically, there weren't enough frequencies to cover these smallish areas (relative to the overall transmitter coverage area) using the existing UHF network, designed to cover large areas. The petal arrangements at sites such as Winter Hill weren't possible everywhere. Even these are no longer co-channel, the large mush zones were problematic. Sure, they could use a sustaining service outside of the local hours but that's what they do with CBS Reality. The cluster arrangement wouldn't be sufficient to support a unique, self sufficient, national channel. It just wouldn't get enough advertising revenue.

    The problem is, it wasn't designed as a network but as ultra local clusters.

    Someone like Channel 4 should've done it in conjunction with ITN.

    Or the BBC in conjunction with local newspapers, which would have been a better use of the licence fee.

    Or just not bother going ahead without a sensible strategy for local tv - which this wasn't.

    Edited once, last by jj20x (July 9, 2020 at 1:09 AM).

  • I agree with much of what you say there JJ20X.

    I know it doesn't have the best coverage, but it can adjust accordingly. It doesn't have to be new content outside of the "local" content. There are shedloads of archives worldwide, you do what Talking Pictures/Forces TV do and pick shows that haven't been on for forever (or ever if you go global), they'll be dirt cheap (relatively). Doing simulcasts like CBS Reality adds an extra level of revenues going elsewhere.

    They don't have to go too old, Howards Way, House Of Elliot, Lovejoy, Bertha, Family Affairs, Night And Day.

    I specifically didn't suggest BBC and Local Newspapers as that suggestion has been given by many before. I just gave it as an alternative.

  • I agree with much of what you say there JJ20X.

    I know it doesn't have the best coverage, but it can adjust accordingly. It doesn't have to be new content outside of the "local" content. There are shedloads of archives worldwide, you do what Talking Pictures/Forces TV do and pick shows that haven't been on for forever (or ever if you go global), they'll be dirt cheap (relatively). Doing simulcasts like CBS Reality adds an extra level of revenues going elsewhere.

    They don't have to go too old, Howards Way, House Of Elliot, Lovejoy, Bertha, Family Affairs, Night And Day.

    I specifically didn't suggest BBC and Local Newspapers as that suggestion has been given by many before. I just gave it as an alternative.

    Agreed. Simulcasting other minority interest channels like CBS Reality and Talking Pictures is not the answer. London Live black and whitefilm fillers was never going to impress a fickle audience.

    You would certainly think that there was enough British and American material available that they could use from the 1980s onwards that has not been shown in recent times and would be of interest to more people.

  • Actually that might have been an avenue they could have tried for. STV tried it briefly with the Scottish Local channels when they were branded STV2 when they broadcast a Polish crime drama. And back in the day Channel 4 used to show what I think was an Indian soap.

  • I agree with much of what you say there JJ20X.

    I know it doesn't have the best coverage, but it can adjust accordingly. It doesn't have to be new content outside of the "local" content. There are shedloads of archives worldwide, you do what Talking Pictures/Forces TV do and pick shows that haven't been on for forever (or ever if you go global), they'll be dirt cheap (relatively). Doing simulcasts like CBS Reality adds an extra level of revenues going elsewhere.

    They don't have to go too old, Howards Way, House Of Elliot, Lovejoy, Bertha, Family Affairs, Night And Day.

    I specifically didn't suggest BBC and Local Newspapers as that suggestion has been given by many before. I just gave it as an alternative.

    Talking Pictures is a low budget operation run from a shed and Forces TV is a charity, so they are better suited to that sort of operation than a full commercial venture. I don't really know much about the CBS Reality content but would have thought that CBS Reality would be paying the local channels for access to the prominent slot. Don't they show the same ads as CBS during the simulcast? Funding in-house archive playout would, most likely, be pointless. Not attractive to the advertisers and, ultimately, any interest from national advertisers would be minimal because of the patchy coverage.

    It's probably too late to try to rescue these channels. Sheffield Live TV is pretty much as it as always been, not following the path of the larger operators. For much of the day and night it shows a photo loop, taking audio from the Sheffield Live community radio station. I'm not sure how that was ever acceptable as local TV. They didn't even seem interested in adding the extra transmitter back in the days when they had more funding. Only covering the south of Sheffield didn't help to build an audience. Now they have the extra transmitter and no funding. I guess low budget radio and a photo stream could have been the alternative to CBS Reality for the other locals but who'd watch?

    The BBC and local newspaper suggestion is and was because this would give the local stations access to high quality news gathering resources, which could have been used to make good local programming and as a training scheme for local tv presenters and journalists. Instead, these channels were encouraged to churn out crap, low budget, reports which the BBC could then use and had to pay for. Unfortunately, they didn't usually meet the standard required by the BBC, so the BBC was being forced to fund this waste.

  • https://rxtvinfo.com/2020/local-tv-…5-minutes-a-day

    Surely it's time for Ofcom to take the licences back...

    I don't understand why local news doesn't work on tv, although going by your posts in the radio thread, the radio world is heading quickly down the same path. Cable always promised local news and apart from a teletext service for a while, it never delivered and it looks like these local channels won't last for much longer either.

    On my fire tv stick, you can get tons of local American stations including the main CBS stations now from all various cities. They seem to manage local news, yet we can't.?(

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!