Making the media work in new ways
"If we can make this experiment in local broadcasting really work, it has to be a model worth rolling out"
THE future of television is a debate which is raging in the creative industries, the corridors of Westminster, the Senedd, and beyond.
How will the medium change and adapt in the age of the internet, where the buzzwords are interactivity and multi-media?
It might be a global headache but it’s one which a tiny corner of south Wales is doing its own bit to try to solve.
On January 31, 3VTV will be born. This local television channel is based in Blaenau Gwent, and making films especially for the community of Blaenau Gwent. With a population of just 68,400 at the last count, this really is “micro” broadcasting – broadcasting on a truly local scale.
Run by the Micro-Broadcasting Centre at the University of Wales, Newport, 3VTV is part-funded by the Welsh Government to the tune of £450,00 over three years. We have three main aims:
- To help build on the tremendous community cohesion which exists within Valleys communities, and to give local people a platform to champion the area and their own stories.
- To encourage digital inclusion, by giving people another good reason to go online, and helping them to do so.
- To help boost the local economy, providing a showcase for local businesses.
3VTV – named for the Three Valleys which make up Blaenau Gwent – will be broadcast on demand on the internet, at 3vtv.co.uk.
We will show films about and of interest to the communities of Blaenau Gwent, made by professional film-makers employed by the project and by students from Newport University’s acclaimed Film School.
This, I believe, is the project’s USP – the quality of our output which will set us apart from many existing internet-based broadcasters. But also, crucially, 3VTV will include content created by people in Blaenau Gwent who have a story to tell or who want to turn their hand to a spot of film-making. We’ll also showcase local talents in digital story-telling, photography, blogging and so on.
3VTV will be a mixture of industry-standard and community-generated content. It’s a model I hope will work, and judging by the reception we’ve had when we’ve been out and about promoting the channel and asking for input, it is one which is already intriguing people.
Some local people have however expressed incredulity that such a project is in their own town, their own county borough – that their area is worth something so bespoke yet so high in quality. But as every local reporter in the land knows, these communities are crammed full of great stories – and what we at 3VTV are determined to do is shout about them.
But the local economy is also central to the project, representing a key part of Newport University’s mission. How is a television project going to help boost the local economy where countless schemes have gone before?
Well, quite simply, we are working with small to medium enterprises based in Blaenau Gwent, who have never before used video for marketing themselves. We are helping local firms by making promotional films for them for free, which will then be shown on 3VTV.
The idea is to give these businesses the chance to promote themselves to the people and market right on their doorsteps. Already, results look promising; we’ve been showing a short film we made about a coffee shop in Brynmawr when we’re out promoting the channel and the response has been an overwhelming: “Wow! I’ve never really thought about that place – but now I’m going to go there!”
Interestingly, finding a model for the future of television isn’t one of our explicitly stated aims; it’s not one that appears on our marketing literature or on our website. But it is, of course, one of our main drivers.
If we can make this experiment in local broadcasting work – and I mean really work, for the community we’re based in – that to me has to be a model worth rolling out. That’s when we’d like to see the same model adopted in county boroughs the length and breadth of Wales. And who knows? Maybe the eyes of the creative and political world will be trained upon this tiny corner of south Wales, and will be impressed with what they see.
- See 3VTV from January 31 2012 at 3vtv.co.uk and follow us on Twitter @3VTV
