Local TV Part 3: Don’t start linear

This is the last in a three-part series of posts on the problematic aspects of the Government’s plan for local TV in the UK. Unlike the previous posts, which pointed out the lack of network support and overly ambitious expectations for content, no Dickensian literary reference was appropriate to title this one. The proposal, to use the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform and create linear television stations across the UK, is already old fashioned enough. It is admirable to invest in local media, but new technology allows more innovative and more sustainable ways of doing it. Putting local TV onto DTT multiplexes (MUXs), even in a first stage as the Government proposes, is an unnecessary investment, and one that sets local television off on the wrong foot in terms of both sustainability and purpose.