Two more bidders emerge for national TV channel

Two more bidders, a group looking to establish a Scottish network and Element Television, have emerged as contenders for the licence to run the government's proposed new national TV channel. The Scottish bid, backed by a group local TV campaigners, will send its expression of interest in running the so-called "Channel 6" to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, on Tuesday, the deadline day for contenders to make initial submissions. They want to create a Scottish TV network covering the whole of the country, while giving a voice to rural communities. The plan is heavily dependent upon a foundation of eight main local stations to cover central Scotland, and other urban centres. The proposed eight local TV stations cater for audiences ranging from 140,000 people in Perth & Kinross to 750,000 in Glasgow & Clyde. They also plan a further six smaller stations, to cover the Highlands and Islands from Shetlands and Orkney to the Western Isles. These may only produce modest amounts of news footage and other material a day. The model, which does not envisage any further public support beyond the funds pledged by the BBC, is specifically designed to mesh and merge with a plan for a new Scottish digital network. This was devised by the Scottish parliament three years ago, which saw the need for a new network outside of the BBC and STV to cover all of Scotland properly. The group's organiser and Institute of Local TV campaigner, Dr David Rushton, said it wanted to broadcast on digital terrestrial frequencies, and was not interested in internet TV. "There is no merit in that, once a number of people want to watch, it falls over," Rushton said, referring to capacity issues with delivering video streaming by broadband. "The key is to spend money on journalism and coverage in rural areas and the more dispersed communities. The BBC concentrates on central Scotland: we don't need more journalists there," he added. "The vital issue here is that viewers see that their local channel is in charge." Element Television is promising to put local news, entertainment and information at the core of the new national channel if it wins the licence. The company is also emphasising the opportinuties on delivering local content via mobile, IPTV and video on demand. Element TV reckons using broadband will allow smaller towns and even villages to launch their own local services. Jamie Conway, Element TV chief executive, said: "Creating pan-national networks that opt out to short bursts of local programming provides nothing nothing new and merely pays lip service to the concept of local broadcasting. Solutions and opportunities to let local businesses advertise to their local areas is as essential in creating a relevance to viewers as local programming is." Element TV has also hired Caroline Bailes, a former Guardian Media Group executive involved in launching Manchester local TV service Channel M, as director of finance and strategy. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".