Memorandum submitted by Visit London
While it does not form part of the central thrust
of the Public Service Media Content inquiry, your members may
be interested in London TV, the television channel developed by
Visit London and the London Development Agency.
The channel promotes London as a destination,
and was the first broadcast channel of its kind. It was launched
across a range of media, and primarily broadcast on Sky Television.
However, the cost of Sky broadcast proved high for the numbers
of visitors (and potential visitors) reached, and over time the
channel has evolved—in 2006, the channel was taken off Sky
and is instead broadcast on Homechoice, in many of London's hotel
rooms, in black cabs, on inbound flights and the Heathrow Express,
and, most importantly of all, online at visitlondon.com. Making
London TV available online makes it accessible for 137 million
broadband users throughout the world, instead of just 8 million
household in the UK reached on a satellite platform. A further
66 million people have an opportunity to see it via the other
distribution methods above.
As an innovative "first" for London,
the Channel was set-up primarily through private funding. However,
the London Development Agency provided funding for content. As
such the channel works as a public private partnership, with clearly
defined roles from both sectors. Since its launch in the summer
of 2004, Visit London invested £5.1 million in London TV.
Of this £4.5 million (88%) has been provided by Visit London's
members and £0.6 million (12%) by the LDA.
The bank of amazing audio-visual content that
has now built up to promote London is downloadable every day on
visitlondon.com and we invite the committee to browse the site.
three-minute clips focus on small niche businesses such as the
Royal Vauxhall Tavern club, the Blue Kangaroo Restaurant for families
in Chelsea, the Lots Road Auction House in Fulham or volunteering
at East Ham nature reserve—a "Green Gym" to help
fitness. These businesses could never normally hope for international
promotion, or to afford advertising. And an audio-visual clip
is a much more effective way to promote something than printed
material ever could be.
As the content is funded through the LDA (hotels
are not charged to broadcast it, attractions etc featured are
also not charged) London TV has a public sector ethos. This allows
for a number of freedoms. Due to is funding structure, London
TV can ensure, for example, that lesser known areas and attractions
are showcased, along with a good spread of outer London boroughs—a
key area for our political stakeholders. London TV can feature
small-run family enterprises with no advertising budget to the
latest free exhibitions in the great museums and galleries—and
works hard to make sure that there is great grassroots coverage
of the arts, concentrating on areas that would normally receive
little or no exposure—benefiting minor art exhibitions,
dance, and small scale theatre productions and giving them access
to a medium that would normally be closed to them for cost reasons.
With the crew and studio based at Visit London,
both can be used by the Mayor and GLA family for public service
related activities. Some examples include providing "vox
pop" videos from the public for the Mayor's Thank You service
to the emergency services after the July 2005 attacks. These videos
gave the public the opportunity to directly thank those responsible
for risking their lives to help others during that time, to much
critical acclaim. Other non-commercial activity includes London
TV being the only television channel in the UK to run the Rachel
Stevens Testicular Cancer Awareness campaign, at no cost to the
charity concerned.
Visit London would be happy to provide more
information if the Committee would like, and to show Members the
studio and how the channel works. London TV might make a great
small-scale case study for the Committee as it grapples with the
larger issues involving the main terrestrial TV channels.
March 2007
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