Birmingham, Alabama 8; Birmingham, UK 1: Local television in the United Kingdom and an ethnographic case study of one service in the north of England

Local television has existed in one form or another for several decades in the United Kingdom with the first licences awarded in 1972 and subsequent waves of licensing over cable and later broadband networks throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 2011, as the digital switchover drew to a close, the incoming coalition government launched a new framework to establish the United Kingdom’s first digital terrestrial network of local public service broadcasters. Building on decades of campaigning by pro-local media providers, but triggered by a withdrawal from local news and programming by the recently consolidated ITV plc, the then Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt M. P. argued erroneously that local TV markets in the United States were flourishing. At time of writing, 34 licences have been awarded (and the Birmingham licence re-awarded when the first licensee collapsed before launch); seventeen services have begun broadcasting; and several have failed to launch within the regulator’s two-year deadline. This article provides a brief history of local television in the United Kingdom, and describes the current policy, licensing process and early developments within the fledgling industry. It then presents an ethnographic case study of an emergent local TV service in the north of England, including interviews with practitioners, observations and analysis of broadcast content and schedules. The study argues that local TV has the potential to serve as a powerful engine of capital transformation, developing local stocks of economic, social, cultural and political capital, but that this potential is severely limited by inadequate funding regimes and heightened vulnerability to bias.