Citizen Television : Local Dimension to Public Service Broadcasting

This stody draws on the Institute of Local Television's four-year study of local television services in the UK.

Beginning with the demands of the citizen for the channels which provide a more localized participation, this book adds a dramatic twist to the long-running debate on public service broadcasting.

The book suggests an underlying public demand for a democratic approach to the expansion of broadcasting, for a distinctive third tier of locally accountable channels which can operate alongside national and regional television services.

Channel 5 remains an option for city TV services in the UK, but cable and other forms of delivery should not be overlooked in developing a unified approach to establishing a quality local public service television.

The large monopolies in broadcasting - public and commercial - seek to deny the use of new technical opportunities to extend broadcasting to provide greater freedoms of expression and use of television by each citizen as a broadcaster in their own right. "Citizen Television" argues that local views must be represented through television, must be able to reconcile themselves day-by-day with the wider national and international picture and that "local" should find its place alongside "metropolitan" in an expanded concept of public service television based on a distribution network and not a centralized hierarchy.