A regional TV broadcaster has promised to send cameras into town halls across the UK.
Made TV, under the direction of former BSkyBexecutive Ian West, already has an ‘in’ – being licence holders for Leeds, Newcastle and Middlesbrough in the north as well as Cardiff and Bristol.
Now its CEO Jamie Conway has said it is his company’s duty to get under the skin of local government and report on its failings and its successes.
The broadcaster, whose bid for Birmingham spearheaded by former Dudley Herald journalist Peter Brookes was rejected in favour of City TV, believes allowing cameras to attend council and full cabinet meetings will give a new dimension on the inner workings of local councils.
A jobs boost is on the cards when Made TV, whose current corporate base is in London, makes the journey up the M1 to the Chapeltown studios in Leeds this autumn.
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Attending meetings (most decisions and debates take place in committee) is hardly likely to “get under the skin” of local government. The danger is that commercial interests will mean that TV (and many local newspapers come to that) will only blindly praise their local council for fear of cutting off a revenue stream. There’s a lot of toadying going on with councils, hospitals, police, fire service, utilities (anyone with a press office and a budget for advertising/sponsorship/promotions basically). You see unsubbed, one sided press releases reproduced faithfully all the time these days.
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