April 2013
[Part I] The UK: The Introduction of Local Television Service and the Role of the BBC
Yoshiko Nakamura
Local broadcast services in the United Kingdom are operated at the “nations” level based on the four nations of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and England as well as at the regional/local level based on more segmented areas of each nation. At the regional/local level, the main provider of local news is the BBC Radio services. The BBC, however, has not been able to expand or develop its original regional/local services due to restrictions concerning resources and competition.
The UK will launch the first local TV services in 19 cities including London and Manchester, and the all local TV licensees were determined by the beginning of March. In this project, the BBC will not directly operate any services, but will support them. In other words, using the licence fee money, the public service broadcaster will finance local TV operators by partially funding the start-up costs for infrastructure and by purchasing locally-made content.
This move can be interpreted as a government’s excuse to allocate licence fee money to broadcasters other than the BBC. However, it is also possible to regard the new relations between the BBC and other broadcasters as “partnership” – a management principle for the BBC’s public service operation.