In 2014 the ITV licence is up for renewal and the broadcaster may well argue that in a post digital switch-over world it no longer needs to provide heavily subsidised regional news.
So time is running and central government keeps changing tack about what should happen next. First there was the generously-subsidised Independently Funded News Consortia plan from the last Labour government.
Then there was the current Government’s much more low-budget plan for a national Channel 6 network of local TV stations with some national content and advertising.
Now it seems that we are heading for a ‘bottom-up’ solution where local broadcast news is provided at between 10 and 20 regional centres paid for with £40m of BBC Licence Fee cash spread out over three years.
Related
Are we heading for a future where the BBC is the only serious show in town when it comes to local broadcast news?
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