IT has been heralded as the mouthpiece for David Cameron's Big Society.
The establishment of local television stations, the first of which, Estuary TV, was launched in Grimsby last night, is expected to help promote local democracy.
Former Culture Secretary Jermey Hunt, who is the brains behind the Government's plans for a network of local TV stations, took his inspiration from America, where the networks are teeming with independent local channels.
He questioned why local television could work in Birmingham, Alabama, but not Birmingham in the West Midlands.
In the UK, news is often viewed as a loss-leader by commercial channels – something to add to the prestige of the station, or fulfill the public service remit in its licence, rather than a major source of profits.
But in America, it is the commercial lifeblood of thousands of local network affiliates, delivering content to its viewers and profits to its owners.
So with the creative industries booming in the UK, Mr Hunt took the leap of faith to try to transport the success of local TV stations in America to England.
The UK's creative industries are worth more than £36 billion a year; they generate £70,000 every minute for the UK economy; and they employ 1.5 million people.
According to industry figures, they account for about £1 in every £10 of the UK's exports.
Local TV is seen by ministers as a vehicle to promote growth and jobs within the industry, while protecting the interests of citizens and helping to ensure we have a plurality of owners in the media industry.
But not everyone has welcomed the proposals, which will see 19 local TV stations created while a further 23 are processed.
Harriet Harman, Labour's shadow minister for culture and media, voted against the proposals when they went before Parliament.
Writing for a national newspaper, she said: "The idea, so the government says, is to bring local news to people so they can hold their politicians to account. But local TV is not happening in rural areas such as the borders of Scotland where there is a dispersed audience.
"Nor do we know what will be shown on these local TV channels.
"There is only one or at most two hours of local news promised.
"We have been told there cannot be pornography for the other 22 or 23 hours, but no other stipulation has been made as to what the content might be …
"It just doesn't make sense. Perhaps this is a vanity project from Hunt which he is determined will succeed and so is throwing £120-million of public money at it."
There have also been concerns about the economic viability of the stations.
A report led by Lazard investment banker Nicholas Shott back in 2010 estimated that a network of ten local TV services would have a combined cost base of about £25 million.
As just £5 million is forecast to come from local advertising, the services would need to earn a further £15 million from national advertising revenues and the BBC would have to provide about £5 million of locally-produced content.
But praise has come in the form of Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers, who said: "I am very much in favour of Estuary TV, it was an initiative put forward by the former culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt who fought very hard to get his way in the face of great resistance."
So what do the people behind it think?
Lia Nici, executive producer, said: "Often we don't realise how innovative we are in Grimsby and actually we're ahead of the game.
"We are the first local Freeview channel to launch and that is a huge accolade for the creative industries in our region.
" The key to the work we do is training. People come from all over the globe to train here because they can't get this type of training anywhere else and we will be working with over 200 students every year in the production of our programmes."
MP Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, recently toured the facilities, based at the Grimsby Institute, as reported.
He said: "I think there is a good tradition of regional broadcasting in the UK that can cover a wide area. What Grimsby has shown is that there is an appetite for local news that is also produced locally.
"The facilities at the Grimsby Institute are state-of-the-art. One of the opportunities for local television is the training that can be provided for young people and the fact they can do that in first-class facilities like this is fantastic."
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