So Ofcom has proposed that consortia of “established UK-wide and regional news providers” could bid for contracts to supply ITV with regional news.
Who might be up for this £30m-£50m job?
At the Guardian, Chris Tryhorn and Mark Sweney suggest all sorts of people: ITN, Reuters, the Press Association and ‘national newspaper groups, many of which have fledgling online video operations”.
Weirdly, their stories don’t mention regional newspaper publishers.
Perhaps if the regionals had invested more in online video (and the web generally) during the boom years, they might be considered natural bidders in this race.
Admittedly, the prospect of regional publishers getting involved does occur to Dan Sabbagh at the Times.
But only ‘outside England”, and even then, the regional press would be –- in Sabbagh’s scenario — relegated to supporting ITV. (Providing ‘extra resources’and gaining ‘some cross-promotional benefits”.)
Sounds like a fairly constrained little game to me.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
