Independent report

Commercially Viable Local Television in the UK – A Review by Nicholas Shott

Nicholas Shott has submitted his final report to Jeremy Hunt advising on the conditions necessary for commercially viable local TV to be sustainable in the UK.

Documents

Letter to the Secretary of State (Scanned document)

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email enquiries@dcms.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Full Report

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email enquiries@dcms.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Full Report

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email enquiries@dcms.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Annexes 2 and 3

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email enquiries@dcms.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Annexes 5 to 10

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email enquiries@dcms.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Annex 11

Request an accessible format.
If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email enquiries@dcms.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Details

Nicholas Shott has submitted his final report to Jeremy Hunt advising on the conditions necessary for commercially viable local TV to be sustainable in the UK.

Remit

The remit for this work is set out in a letter from the Secretary of state to Nicholas Shott, which said:
“By the end of your study, we will want to understand how the Government can maximise the potential for local television to emerge in the UK and have a clear view of the value for delivering local TV from the point of view of potential investors”.

In particular, it would be helpful to understand the following:

  • what are the conditions necessary in which local television can be commercially viable
  • the scope of revenue opportunities from advertising or other sources
  • which barriers should be reformed/removed to nurture a new generation of profitable local media companies
  • how might existing industry players help achieve this.

Steering group

Nicholas Shott has formed a small steering group to help him with this study. The steering group members are:

  • Brian Linden: Partner, Cinven
  • Claire Enders: Chief Executive, Enders Analysis
  • Baroness Kingsmill CBE: former Deputy Chair of the Competition Commission
  • Richard Eyre: former Chairman of Gcap

This steering group is supporting Nicholas in a personal capacity and they remain entirely independent from government. Since July 2010 the group have met over 100 individuals representing a range of media backgrounds to help inform their work.

Published 14 December 2010