I saw Channel M the other day (Manchester), and it was the most awful experience I've ever seen. Like US Public Access TV at it's worst.
>I saw Channel M the other day (Manchester), and it was the most awful experience I've ever seen. Like US Public Access TV at it's worst.
A good (and possibly the only) site for clips and still from Channel 9 Derry is:
http://www.grundie.uklinux.net/tv/tvc9.htm
BBC North devoted an edition of Close Up North to this recently. Their view (biased obviously!) was that it was a good idea but too expensive to do to the standard that would appeal to viewers. They did point out that in some cases a limited version could work (an Asian channel in Bradford, and an educational channel somewhere else).
I have to say the Derry station looks impressive for such a small outlay. This has been the way the US regional service has gone, and I'm sure it will hit here once (free) multichannel TV becomes the norm. With that being the case lets hope it emulates the Derry example instead of the tacky (cable, I think) L!ve-TV-wanabee Channel M.
There's a horrific North-East cable channel which mostly involves fat depressed men in nylon clothes talking about football.
>I have to say the Derry station looks impressive for such a small outlay. This has been the way the US regional service has gone, and I'm sure it will hit here once (free) multichannel TV becomes the norm. With that being the case lets hope it emulates the Derry example instead of the tacky (cable, I think) L!ve-TV-wanabee Channel M.
I haven't seen Channel M myself but it's terrestrial with a very small area of broadcast. From my parents house seven miles east of Manchester all you can see is a great big M bug in the midst of the snowstorm.
It's website is no use either. It tells you you can see the station via your TV ariel "if you live within the core coverage area shown on the map above."
Impressively there is no map.
The Oxford Channel is very naff indeed. It only produces an hour's worth of programming a day, but that's repeated over and over endlessly. With the exception of the bits in the studio, the general picture quality is up there with the average camcorder. Their star interviewer is a transatlantic-accented prat called Bill Heine, who tries too hard to be a colourful eccentric - he's the one who, a few years back, fought the council to get planning permission to have a replica of a shark halfway through his roof, it always used to turn up as a picture gag on early HIGNFY and such.
The best thing about it is that it does cover the whole of Oxfordshire in its reports, even if it's just features on pubs and restaurants and the like (they don't seem to have any drama or scripted stuff at all). So, at least you don't get overprivileged student wankers dominating the screen - pity that happens when they've left college, and on screens all over the country......
I always enhjoyed Channel 6 whenever i watched it.
To be fair, this generally was at about half-five in the morning.