Ripsaw Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 (Warning! Writing on the fly, so comprehension and presentation my be way off) So there I was flicking through the EPG Guide wondering what to watch and came accross Channel 244 which is London TV (link). Basically a channel devoted to boosting Tourism in the "adjacent Isle's" capital city. So me being me, I sat there thinking (once more) "I wonder how much it actually costs to run a satellite channel and could the Dept. of Tourism, DTI, Film Commission, etc. afford to fund such a project for the Isle of Man. I did a google for "satellite channel costs" and have been reading up a bit on the various costs involved and thinking about such a channel being commercially viable. There are a lot of websites refering to costs and how cheap it now is to compile, upload etc., without quite managing to actually to share any figures. The nearest I found was a thread the Digital Spy Forum, dated Jan 2004... You need to have cash to fund 4 main elements: 1. Transponder (your satellite channel): around £300K per year, on a 3 or 5 year contract. If you want to have red-button interactivity, quite a bit more. 2. Playout (getting your programmes from source -tape, live, etc- to the transponder, scheduling etc): hugely variable, say upwards of £150K per year. 3. EPG slot (so people know where you are and what's on): £75K per year to Sky. 4. Programme production: from zero to infinity. Before you start, you need to get an Ofcom licence: £1575 with the application (which takes 4-6 weeks to process, provided you have the right credentials). Although they're not a major cost component, Sky is very much a controlling factor, since without presence on the EPG, very few people will find your channel. Sky won't even talk to you properly re launch until you have pretty well all the above in place...then allow 6-9 months lead time. And all of the above excludes the operational people costs, and costs of achieving (advertising?) revenues to fund the whole thing. So, not a project for the faint-hearted (or poor)... So could the Island afford a local TV station broadcasting throughout the British Isles via Sky Digital? According to the Departmental Spending Plan 2005/6 Tourism & Leisure estimated spending: £24.4m of which "marketing" is expected to cost £2.35m (wow, Public transport will cost the taxpayers £8m this year) Dept. Trade and Industry estimated spending: £13.9m of which £235k is for marketing and £4.9m worth of grants. (Oddly the "Film Fund" has no expenditure figure for 2005/6 in the DTI columns, although they received £5.5m and £6.0m in 2003/4 2004/5 respectively. I'd say that those two departments could cough up a few quid between them. Blimey, the Film Fund's £11.5m for that 2 year period would have funded a channel for years to come. To be viable though, assuming the transponder space could be secured any IOM TV Channel would of course require content and upload facilities. Now here's a cheeky thought, the Dept. of Education come onboard with their £89m budget and invest a bit of cash into developing and supporting a wider ranging Media Studies cirriculum at the college and the Media school. The Island seems to want to be an Irish Sea Hollywood and folk holding the purse strings said that by giving away loads of our tax money to visiting film companies we would see local Media skills being developed and improved. I must admit to being sceptical to most claims of such an ilk although not being involved in education or media, I admit to not being "clued up" on that side of the industry. Anyway, the Media study students now have a potential audience to perform to and that to me says "pyscological gains" as no longer do they aspire to produce material for a 5 or 10 minute screening to their friends, but they have the prestige of producing "mainstream" work for a real market place. Now it would probably be foolhardy to try and suggest a 24/7 TV channel, but I think we could afford and fill a part time self funding (commercial) channel that broadcasts for 3 or 4 hours per weeknight and maube 8 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. I don't think it would be too much trouble to incorporate "rights to screen" any future (straight to video) films that we taxpayers subsidise. There are archives of motorsport, heritage and tourism type programmes that would benefit from being aired and the imputous to fill the broadcast hours would open the doors to a more concentrated thought process as to how we wish to be seen by viewers tuning in from the rest of the British Isles. The aim of a channel would primarily be to entertain the Island's residents, but also offer an informative service to those off Island who would be mentally tuned into the Island's "way of life" whether through publicity of the channel, or indeed like me coming across London TV, completely by accident while channel hopping. Local manufacturers such as H&B, Bushys, IOM Creameries, Davidsons, etc. attend UK events to promote their products into the UK market, the channel would be a good way to publisise their and other Manx products to a wider audience. Same could be said for many of the local finance houses. They fill the radio airwaves, let them advertise their services off Island to people who would benefit from being made aware of investing savings into a well regulated financial centre. There is enough commercial potential to generate income for the channel so that it isn't totally dependant on tax payers money. Maybe the BBC could be tempted (or threatened) to rebate some of our licence money to part fund the service? Back to the local audience and local sports, Tynwald, the music scene etc could raise their local profiles (Peter Karan introducing Slimpig at Chasfest in a Peel AFC kit, anyone? Terry Cringle would of course be banned from the airwaves!) Anyway I will wrap up (for now) other than to say that "Branding Isle of Man" could take a whole new direction in a way that benefits the Island, the general population, the persons involved with the project and the coverage. The fiscal ammounts would in my opinion be well worth the investment as long as the project was treated with the respect that such a venture would deserve. I may be wrong (it has been known) but I am sure that Tourism spent in the region of £0.5m to transmit 30 second adverts on UK Gold a year or so ago. How little more would it cost for an exponential increase of available airtime? 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Mission Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 I'm sure there would be many local companies willing to advertise on local television. You might want to contact Channel tv (Channel Islands television station) or:- Solent TV (Isle of Wight television station) for more information on costings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripsaw Posted February 24, 2005 Author Share Posted February 24, 2005 Just had a look at those two. The quality of Solent TV's News is probably the best streaming video that I've seen for a long time. A darn sight better than the BBC BRoadband feeds. Edit: Big Al & the Doc... I like it Hmmmm, Callister and Peters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mission Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 The Isle of Wight is of similair size to the Isle of Man (very slightly bigger, with a bigger population too). Obviously, Channel TV incorporates Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm etc so geographically and population wise a lot bigger than the Isle of Man. I still don't see any reason why the Isle of Man doesn't have it's own television station and to be honest, I was amazed to find it didn't when I moved here 9 years ago! About time this issue was addressed I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirdick Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 The Island seems to want to be an Irish Sea Hollywood and folk holding the purse strings said that by giving away loads of our tax money to visiting film companies we would see local Media skills being developed and improved. I must admit to being sceptical to most claims of such an ilk although not being involved in education or media, I admit to not being "clued up" on that side of the industry. Anyway, the Media study students now have a potential audience to perform to and that to me says "pyscological gains" as no longer do they aspire to produce material for a 5 or 10 minute screening to their friends, but they have the prestige of producing "mainstream" work for a real market place. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I picked up on this bit. Having done the media course at College, knowing people still doing it (it's improved since I did it already) and others doing the one out at Peel, I know for a fact that something like a TV channel would be an instant appeal to the students and the tutors alike. The "no longer do they aspire to produce material for a 5 or 10 minute screening to their friends" often seems so true, or there is the other side of it where instead of for your friends its for some uninterested Uni prof. to stare at. With that it would probably mean students are more likely to stay on the Island than go away and never return (as, to be fair, most do) and still achieve a career in their chosen specialty. There's my 2 pennies worth on behalf of students anyway. (Ps. I like it when people get carried away on some crazy hairbrained scheme like this. I've spent the last 2 hours surveying which would be the more viable area of the moon to purchase, and how I would I go about constructing a ship that could fly there.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mission Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 HA HA HA "You're just a second rate dj on a second rate radio show!" "Well if it's second rate, why are you listening to it every day?" Owned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mission Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Now that's what's missing from local radio over here too. 3 stations, why can't we have a show like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 (Ps. I like it when people get carried away on some crazy hairbrained scheme like this. I've spent the last 2 hours surveying which would be the more viable area of the moon to purchase, and how I would I go about constructing a ship that could fly there.) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I envisage record viewing figures for IOM TV if you pull that one off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mission Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Take me along for the ride too SD, I've always wanted to go itno space. I can picture it now "This is Mission control, you are go for launch". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripsaw Posted February 25, 2005 Author Share Posted February 25, 2005 /thinks... Probabilities> IOM TV Vs Moon Shuttle... I'll get my coat... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mission Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Well it could happen, what with the island being an err, how did they word it again (somehing to do with space anyway)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keristal Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 The Isle of Wight is of similair size to the Isle of Man (very slightly bigger, with a bigger population too). Obviously, Channel TV incorporates Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm etc so geographically and population wise a lot bigger than the Isle of Man. The IOW might have a bigger population 130,000, but I'm sure it's a smaller island approx 23x13 miles, it's only about 155 sqare mile in actual land area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripsaw Posted February 25, 2005 Author Share Posted February 25, 2005 I'm watching "Extra Extra" now on Solent TV/watch and it is both refreshing and scarey to see such an open and frank discussion about Island life. It shouldn't be, but is, uncanny at the similarities between the IOM and the IOW, The difference is the way the media discusses it. None of the "Aren't we politicians great people" soundbites, just serious thought and discussion. In some ways we are ahead of the IOW, yet my faith in the way the IOM is proceeding wanes (even more than usual) when seeing/hearing their thoughts. I really would recommend readers to watch this particular programme. I assume the footage will change soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mission Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 The Isle of Wight is of similair size to the Isle of Man (very slightly bigger, with a bigger population too). Obviously, Channel TV incorporates Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm etc so geographically and population wise a lot bigger than the Isle of Man. The IOW might have a bigger population 130,000, but I'm sure it's a smaller island approx 23x13 miles, it's only about 155 sqare mile in actual land area. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Trust me dude, it is bigger than the Isle of Man (I've lived on both islands and had this argument before, more than once). Isle of Man is 355.66 sq kilometres, Isle of Wight is 381 sq kilometres (near as I can get, had it in square miles somewhere but can't find it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallybug Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 Just had a look at those two. The quality of Solent TV's News is probably the best streaming video that I've seen for a long time. A darn sight better than the BBC BRoadband feeds. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Just watching the news on there now, and you're right - very professionally done. Well done to Solent TV! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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