AddThis SmartLayers

Students could help run local TV channel

Journalism students could be involved in a local TV channel for Sheffield after Ofcom announced the latest successful applicants to run channels.

Sheffield Local Television Ltd has been awarded a licence to run a channel in the city, while Northern Visions has been awarded the licence for Belfast.

The Sheffield channel, which aims to launch next October, will be known as Sheffield Live / SLTV and the application states that student journalists from both of the city’s universities and Sheffield College will be involved.

The awarding of the licence means a bid led by former Sheffield Star editor Alan Powell to run local TV in the city as part of YourTV has not been successful.

The Sheffield application states: “We will work with and involve student journalists from both of Sheffield’s universities and from the Sheffield College, providing work experience and apprenticeship opportunities, and encouraging and supporting the development of their broadcast and online journalism skills, including in local investigative reporting.”

SLTV, which will broadcast 24 hours each day, aims to carry at least one hour of news programming a day, consisting of a 30-minute Sheffield Evening News at 6.30pm and six five-minute bulletins throughout the day.

On weekdays, the channel will carry at least one hour of live current affairs programming.

The Belfast local TV channel, which will be called NVTV, is due to be launched in September next year, broadcasting 24 hours per day with local news six times a day Monday to Saturday, with a Sunday round-up.

The licences are part of the government’s plans to roll-out local TV across the country and further successful bids will be announced later this autumn.

2 comments

You can follow all replies to this entry through the comments feed.
  • October 10, 2012 at 3:01 pm
    Permalink

    Sounds very amateurish. Doubt I’d watch it if I lived there…

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)
  • October 10, 2012 at 4:16 pm
    Permalink

    For ‘students’, read ‘cheap labour’… and the intro par on the index page is a little misleading.

    Report this comment

    Like this comment(0)