January 2014
www.tvbeurope.com
Local and regional interests are demanding their own tailored TV content. Until now, limited distribution and high operating costs have stood in the way
TVBEurope 43 The Workflow
Think global, broadcast local: British local TV takes off
UK local television is about to move forward in a big way. Philip Stevens visits the Network Operations Centre to find out more
OVER THE years, several attempts have been made at operating television channels in the UK on a purely local basis – with a city- or town-wide focus, catering to the viewing needs of a closely defined area. Few have been successful. Two explanations might be offered as reasons for failure – limited distribution through the use of cable and high individual operating costs. In 2011, the government’s then culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, proposed a network of stations to serve communities and provide an alternative to the existing services, plans which make the current outlook for local TV more favourable. On the distribution front, the DDT Freeview channel 8 (45 in Wales and Scotland) has been made available for these local stations – enabling an audience of around 12 million homes.
On the operational side, one
innovation has been the appointment of Comux UK, a community-owned organisation of local TV licence holders as the local TV multiplex operator. Comux is responsible for building and operating the technical platform for all local broadcasting services. To date there are 23 licensed areas that will be served in this way – with a second batch of around 30 licensees coming online over the next few years. All monies generated are ploughed back into the TV service – and local community projects.
Ed Hall, chief executive of Comux
New concept “As far as I know, this central facility for the multiplex operation is unique throughout Europe,” states Ed Hall, chief executive of Comux. “From our centre in Birmingham, we offer a whole range of services for the local operators – right from
scheduling, through playout to delivery to the Freeview transmitters.” Hall explains that this
arrangement is far more cost- effective than each licensee having to carry out these procedures locally – and then use lines to the transmitters. “We have a 100MB bearer
between us and each local station. Under normal circumstances, 50MB is used for the services on a day-by-day basis. The funding for building the infrastructure comes from the BBC, which has allocated £25 million for the local TV venture. The other 50MB is there for use by the local operator or commercial interests on a payment basis.”
So, with no model from elsewhere to call upon, what were the
challenges that faced the Comux team – and how were those situations faced?
Time trial
“As far as I know, this
central facility for the multiplex operation is unique
throughout Europe” Ed Hall, Comux
“I guess our biggest challenge was time,” reveals Hall. “Ofcom awarded the multiplex operator’s licence at the end of January2013 — much later than expected. Comux built this network in 18 weeks and one day — everything had to be carefully scheduled. That tight time frame meant that we had to take out the breathing
spaces that we had
inserted into the original build plan. Among other targets, that plan called for us to install over 18km of video cable and more than 6000m of network cable capable of sending 385,000 data packets per second out of the Network Operations Centre in Birmingham, within a window of just five weeks.” One project that helped
overcome the truncated schedule was the creation of a virtual channel at the operations centre. “We built a fictional schedule, imported files and did many dummy runs. This enabled us to anticipate problems and to work out best practice when it came to the real thing.” That ‘real thing’ happened in
Nevion SIM: Nevion equipment has been selected for Comux Operations Centre Comux MCR: The nerve centre of the UK local television network
November when the first of the local operators went on air. Estuary TV, which is based at the Grimsby Institute and is a wholly owned subsidiary of the further and higher education colleges, will reach around 370,000 homes in parts of
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