Written evidence submitted by Latest TV Ltd,

INTRODUCTION EVERYWHERE IS LOCAL and LATEST TV IS BRIGHTON

It is as much Brighton as Brighton Palace Pier or Brighton Rock. We’ve been here for decades and it shows!

If there’s one thing this extraordinary spring has shown, it’s LOCAL is all important. You get treated in a LOCAL hospital, get cared for by your LOCAL community your neighbours look out for you and your LOCAL media are the people who tell you the news on the ground and the situation in your city on LOCAL TV.

As a guest for years on BBC radio’s weekly Sarah Gorrell’s show, I count colleagues there as friends. I was shocked when BBC regional TV (for Brighton it’s Tunbridge Wells) cut their morning bulletins and Sunday Politics Show.

By contrast Latest TV upped coverage safely. MPs, council leaders, public health leaders and hundreds of ordinary Brightonians, like us, have been on Latest TV Brighton. We saw the closure of both main newspaper offices in Brighton... () and The Indy (Johnston Press) while Latest TV’s newsroom remains open. It has always been like this - I was reminded by Lord Grade that when tasked with extending the news from London to the South East, he asked his team for titles and the most popular with his team was Sod Off Kent! On another occasion, when we tipped off BBC about a great story which we covered they sent a truck from Tunbridge Wells to cover the story at the cost of.... well you can guess!

Latest TV has the only TV studios in Brighton which are world class. We are a success story with large committed audiences independently audited and our news concentrates on LOCAL. What is often overlooked - most national stories are LOCAL. We were the only broadcasters at the Shoreham Airshow disaster, the first to report Uber flaunting regulations, have covered Pride since 1992 (we were told by the BBC in 2014 when we offered to cover Brighton Pride like Glastonbury, that it was not mainstream. They said, that’s fine for Brighton, but not Tunbridge Wells!) Since then, , and other huge stars have played Brighton Pride.

We are the only broadcasters to film Disability Pride since it began, the only broadcasters to cover the build of the biggest Mosque in Europe supported by Dr Tim Winter and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens). We covered equally the oldest synagogue in England! We don’t talk diversity; we ARE diversity and have won national diversity awards. We were first to report on Professor Roy Taylor’s revolutionary Newcastle diet to reverse diabetes in 2016. We started filming Covering Covid-19 in March with 13 other local TV channels. A programme much copied since! In case that sounds like worthy but non-commercial, think again. Our documentary on Harry and Meghan - Love and Home (link enclosed) received huge audiences and is LOCAL. He’s the Duke Of , we have the Royal Pavilion, built by the Prince Regent, brother of the first Duke of Sussex and we have exclusive footage of Harry and Meghan with a brilliant presenter Yael Breuer. Our audiences on Facebook and YouTube are huge with three films having over 100,000 viewers on YouTube! And we are modern, streaming for years and gained Arts Council support to have streaming studios. We sent a plan to the DCMS how the UK could compete with USA based streamers and are progressing this. It’s ridiculous the UK has no household names for streaming to compete with Netflix, Hulu, Spotify and many USA based others!

TV is all about programmes, not talking about programmes, so we enclose links of programmes showing when LOCAL comes together it is most powerful TV! I am hopeful you will enjoy them as people in Brighton do. With colleagues in Belfast, Sheffield, Notts, Kent and the 8 Local TV Ltd stations, we already have Channel 7 as the powerhouse of UK local news. Not just news, LOCAL is football, films, music, culture, all of which we do. We have upped our coverage, covering Women’s Football, in Brighton, starting FilmPride, filming and Fringe (why are these not national like The Proms?)

My point is simple. We are 24/7 LOCAL TV on Channel 7.

RESPONSE TO CALLS FOR EVIDENCE

Regulations: Local must be seen as important – see above. We are the only LOCAL channels and should receive funding. Ofcom should be consulted on our services. We are confident they will recommend. It’s ridiculous that the BBC have monopoly on local TV – BBC TV not here in Brighton and never seen until Latest TV opened. We have 10x as much local coverage, but they get ALL the money.

Representation: TV should be properly representative. The quota system means London broadcasters move to Sheffield, Leeds, Brighton or Belfast and open offices. Have faith in cities to make great TV. We do. When was last time you saw a Belfast story as the main story on 06.00pm to 08.00pm news on main PSB channels? Can you name any? Level Up!

Accessibility: Latest TV have both streaming and terrestrial. Wholly internet does not work for older people – tempted to say for everyone after the debacle of BBC3. LOCAL people need their local TV station just like local newspaper. We streamed to 178,000 people from Brighton Palace Pier this month, terrestrial gets less numbers, but a regular audience interested in local democracy. BBC does not put their Local Democracy reporter on TV and when we requested, they said ‘no’! What sort of local democracy is that? Impact: PSBs until recently were London based. LOCAL is important and not covered. In South East it’s 1/2 hour weekly on BBC for all South East plus possibly another 20/30 mins on news. We cover… LOCAL news, LOCAL theatre, LOCAL grassroots football, LOCAL politics, LOCAL music, LOCAL diversity, LOCAL… the list continues. We need to take LOCAL seriously, not ‘Sod off Kent’

Looking Ahead: PSBs should be modern, covering UK and bringing news from ALL UK to audiences. LOCAL is as important particularly when local stations have demonstrated their value and loved by LOCALS! For the first time I heard C4 say they have news from ‘YOUR area’. Last year they moved to Leeds, under some protest. We as LOCAL TV like living in Leeds , Belfast or Brighton and love providing TV to OUR areas. PSBs need modern approach – Below is plan for Streamland, a streaming platform covering UK culture and arts – Buxton Opera House or Garsington Opera, as important as The Royal Opera House. We have Arts Council support. Level Up!

Levelling up on the magnificent C7

C7 is great already for local TV with millions watching -16 million viewers for channels combined – figures in Ofcom annual report.

The future should be developing C7, the UK-wide local channel concentrating on all the news from everywhere in the UK from the ground up but also all the other things which are LOCAL and still get practically no coverage apart from our channels. It is local platforms that enable people to get on TV and develop their careers – many examples - and it helps grassroots. In short it must be the gateway and it must level up!

Below - an example average day schedule: 8 am C7 News

9am Brighton News or Birmingham News or Bristol News depending on location

10am Film UK with Talking Pictures/ BFI/ FilmPride/ UK Filmmakers Example films:

10 am...Brighton Rock – great UK local film

11.30...My Accomplice – brilliant new film

1pm C7 News

2pm Brighton News

3pm Grassroots Football v Hastings – local non-league football at its best

5pm Walks Around Britain – one of the most popular shows on TV – full stop!

6 pm Documenting UK Harry and Meghan Love and Home or

Streamland UK with performances from all great LOCAL venues, art centres etc across UK

7pm Leo Rowsome King Of The Pipers or

Streamland UK – as above

8pm C7 News

9pm Brighton News

10 pm Streamland UK.... as above with grassroots music throughout the night giving local artists and venues a platform at last! WOMEN’S and GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL In Brighton we covered Women’s Football, two great LOCAL teams in Brighton and Lewes. A year or two later BBC got exclusive contract to cover.. Should our national broadcaster be a rival or a friend? We should have been allowed to continue particularly as local BBC did not cover. What’s wrong with collaboration? We started Non-League Football Show featuring all best grassroots football teams. BT came in and covered it. Our footage is still LOCALLY extensive.

FILMMAKERS Filmmakers are largely excluded from national television - I am one - and LGBT filmmakers even more! Hundreds of films are made across UK by brilliant local filmmakers which will attract audiences. I enclose one as evidence - My Accomplice - with main star now a huge international star. Enjoy

C4 and BBC do show films but very few new releases. Can you name any?

When starting Latest TV Brighton I contracted with the fledgling Talking Pictures channel to show many of their films. These films are LOCAL. Jigsaw/Brighton Rock/Quadrophenia all about Brighton and as many about Glasgow, Belfast, Sheffield or Bristol.

Post Brexit, a TV channel, C7 showcasing the best culture from the UK with own streamland.uk to stream to the world is a must. We are proud of UK, not just London. Let’s level that playing field!

As I write this, Tony Hall is on The Andrew Marr Show saying he should work with the Arts Council, but still talking about big institutions. He is NOT talking about Chapter in Cardiff, The Leadmill in Sheffield, The Cavern all of which are on C7!

We wrote to Tony Hall about a grassroots opera season with a well-known presenter, to include Buxton, Grange Park, Garsington, Longborough and Nevill Holt. To be fair he passed us to a London based BBC contact on BBC4. After a month’s discussions they decided on “other plans with Royal Opera House”. We don’t think it should be one or the other!

The BBC see us as rivals, not fellow broadcasters and friends. NVTV Belfast work with the Arts Council, making great cultural programmes. The thirteen local TV channels, are the only channels to broadcast their wonderful Leo Rowsome.... King Of The Pipers. Brighton filmed Brighton Festival and Fringe events for decades - England’s biggest arts festival is as important as The Proms. Brighton Pride has 160,000 attendance, more than Glastonbury so why not cover it as we have?

GRASSROOTS MUSIC

Our studios are based in a successful music venue.... where many have played or been interviewed ... Amy Winehouse, Royal Blood, Michael Eavis, Terence Stamp, and Mark Butcher is bringing his band - not his cricket bat. Grassroots music is a big part of our LOCAL offer and many performers, now world famous would not get a start on TV anywhere else. We teach TV ... 3000 students in 2019 and major in teaching STREAMING. I tried to get universities involved. They still don’t teach it. We train people and as said, the reach last week for our stream from Brighton Palace Pier was 178,000.

TOURISM Latest TV, Brighton is sponsored by Brighton Palace Pier - we work closely with them. We have streamed worldwide (with Arts Council support) and will up this to showcase LOCAL Britain to the world. No one else is doing this!

In essence we have been delivering a LOCAL network from all over the UK. I programmed a national schedule, 6 to 8pm on Saturday/Sunday - so successful that we will extend, independently audited by TVA Analytics that shows audience is substantial.

Imagine - you don’t need to imagine it in Brighton as it’s reality - a channel with UK- wide news where what happens in Belfast could be the lead story: backed up by LOCAL news programme and then Arts Council involvement in Belfast or Brighton or Birmingham: films from Talking Pictures like Brighton Rock or Jigsaw: new movies from new directors like Charlie Weaver Rolfe’s My Accomplice: documentaries like Eva Maria Wilshere’s Homeless By The Sea (link enclosed) watched by nearly 200,000 people: bands and musicians as good as Jo Harmon or Royal Blood. (We filmed Ed Sheeran in 2011, before others) This station reflects new post Brexit Britain and shows everything we in UK do well, whether in Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, Brighton, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, North Wales, Teesside, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh and more.

This approach is the way to go! Ensuring news from everywhere in UK is covered properly and from those communities. David Montgomery from Local TV, Steve Buckley from Sheffield Live and I have exec produced the much-acclaimed Covering Covid-19 (links enclosed) which is essentially C7 News. We came together with Hyndman from NVTV, Belfast, David Powell from KMTV, Kent, David Lloyd, Craig Chettle and Chris Breese from Notts TV, to develop a network that’s worked. With BBC4 rumoured to close (budget 44 million) we are an equally good channel and with investment can deliver UK-wide news, arts, grassroots channel to serve communities. We don’t have to be forced to cover Kent, KMTV are there, be forced to go to Leeds, Local TV Leeds is there The BBC does not need TV studios in Brighton, they can share ours and work together just as I have on BBC Radio Sussex. In short, our local stations ARE working together and Covering Covid (C7 News) shows the way forward. One of our team - Carrie Lewis from the Lewis Sisters - invented Quarantine Songs - from balconies now a cliché - we were ahead - we filmed Captain Tom when he raised £1.3million. Not £30 million! Covering Covid shows how good C7 is and not just Brighton. Community reporters like Baillor Jalloh in Sheffield, Simon Woods or Conor McKernan in Belfast Luke Davies in Cardiff, Dean Roughley in Manchester, Jamie Lowe in Bristol, Sophie Halsey at Tyne and Wear have shown on Covering Covid and on their news channels how brilliant LOCAL reporters are. They are EMBEDDED in community.

STREAMLAND UK

The idea which we’ve been building for C7 - before Zoom, streaming living rooms etc - is a platform to aggregate all genres of UK Culture and Arts, grassroots as well as more elite - which rewards artists and venues as opposed to just USA platforms like Netflix or YouTube. The way to maximise benefits for UK Arts is to control the platform. No UK business has achieved proper monetisation of online arts and culture. This would achieve that to benefit artists and venues. We discussed this with The Arts Council last year and they backed it financially to start the process. With one of the leading platform builders in the world we can deliver a cost-effective platform, I see it as a VACCINATION FOR CULTURAL industries. You will be surprised that for £200k we can have an initial platform, capable of being scaled up, in 3 months. For £600k, an exact equivalent of YouTube - the same functionality. Platforms are becoming cheaper exactly like the history of websites.

The combination of C7 and Streamland is a game-changer for arts and culture in the UK and for TV – an aggregated home for all UK arts and culture, streamed and on terrestrial TV – we are developing it. This should be funded as crucial for UK Arts!

We want to continue to develop Channel 7 into the news and culture channel for the whole UK and streaming is an essential part of the new TV landscape. If public funding for Royal Opera House on the BBC why cannot not be for Buxton Opera on C7 or content from The Leadmill in Sheffield or Cardiff’s Chapter Arts Centre? We receive no funding at all. The BBC has a monopoly on culture in the UK and chooses to largely only cover London. Level up please!

As said, there is a major gap in the UK for a streaming platform affordable to audiences but fairly rewarding artists and venues. The main platforms, largely USA based do not reward artists, rather keeping the lion’s share of revenue raised. A quality-controlled platform featuring all genres of arts – music, theatre, dance, comedy, poetry – diversity and inclusion as one of its key principles - at grassroots and middle of the road level is being achieved by us now. With partners at Music Venue Trust - over 600 venues, the Dome in Brighton and other large venues, regional opera companies, arts festival organisers. supported by The Arts Council, this platform can be scaled up in a short timescale. This could be a commercial venture in partnership with The Arts Council or the DCMS, as together we help The Arts Council achieve their ‘Lets Create ‘ strategy.

Markets/Competition

A total of 91 billion songs were played on Spotify. Apple Music and competitors last year, but a report for the Entertainment Retailers’ Association claims fans are not getting choice and artists not receiving just rewards. ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50472906 )

Live grassroots music and other UK culture is not included. New features could double the value of the market from £829m this year to £1.6bn in 2023 - a clear commercial opportunity. Currently all major streaming platforms are US based. Very few who contribute their work receive just rewards, KT Tunstall’s campaign highlights this. The solution A combination of a facility with high-production values and a platform to collate and market the work will be developed at low cost. Combined with C7 broadcasting this is real innovation . Monetising strategies will be added to fairly reward all aspects of the chain. We with Arts Council support have funded to date. We can deliver this extraordinary platform within months.

LINKS:

Covering Covid: 2 example episodes

Episode 22 – May 2020

https://vimeo.com/425485517

Episode 8 – March 2020

https://vimeo.com/420765023

Homeless by The Sea: the first film produced in 2017 letting the homeless speak for themselves

https://vimeo.com/425084274

Harry and Meghan – Love and Home: recent film with unique footage getting very high audience numbers

https://vimeo.com/410151714 Password. Archewell747