home members events festivals awards funding downloads links information
The Institute of Local Television researches and promotes small-scale television - local, community and neighbourhood TV. Its founder began making programmes on labour movement and trade union issues in the early 80s. The Institute has survived through the ups and downs of the community TV lobby in Britain and is experienced in the engineering and technical as well as the production side of local TV, giving training and advice to interested groups and individuals. The director of the Institute helped set-up and run Edinburgh Television and Channel 6 Dundee under the TV RSL (Restricted Services Licence) between 1999 and 2001. With John Libbey the Institute published Citizen Television, a local dimension to public service broadcasting (1993), Local Television Reviewed (1994) and Creating Local Television (1997). In 1998 School Press published Don Quixote’s Art & Television.
The Institute of Local Television (ILT) is part of an international network
of community TV broadcasters - Open Channels for Europe – and a remit
to keep UK projects and communications policy makers informed of developments
and models of community TV provision in Europe and elsewhere.
The Institute is involved in media literacy provisions through writing on media
access and through lobbying Ofcom and other key policy makers, and it carries
on the media literacy debate both in the UK and internationally within the
broader context of media democracy.
The Institute of Local Television also produces and distributes TV programmes
to arts and community channels, some on behalf of an educational charity The
Broadcasting Trust. The Institute's annual interviews with authors’ appearing
at the Edinburgh International Book Festival - 'Writers' Stories' - is distributed
on DVD through its educational website localtvonline.com. The Institute also
produces a series on ‘Art in Scotland’ called Artists' Stories
which is currently in its third volume and sold through its website and through
Tate Modern in London. A collection of 20 years’ of broadcast-related
and community TV work has been reproduced from the archive of The Broadcasting
Trust on the Community Media Association’s online commedia.showcase.com.
Artists’ Stories is currently being circulated to galleries and libraries
and broadcast on local TV stations in the UK and Europe.
The Institute of Local Television co-produced a number of videos through the
Community Media Association’s 'Commedia Millennium Awards' scheme, providing
mentoring and video production training for individuals whose projects were
funded under the scheme. The Institute offers postgraduate work experience
on community productions - notably interviews with authors at the annual Edinburgh
International Book Festival and from 2004 with artists at the Edinburgh Arts
Festival.
The Broadcasting Trust engages more directly in community production and training
activity, and gives support to community TV projects trying to get off the
ground. The Trust ran a local broadcasting trial from the Locus Centre in Aberfeldy,
and is helping to set up a new TV station in Leith with the organisation Leith
Community MediaWorks. . The Institute has developed a licence-exempt TV technology
using the 2.4GHz band. '2.4TV' is being evaluated for use in Winchester, Southwark,
Doncaster and Merthyr Tydfil and in developing countries with the development
think-tank GAMOS.
The Institute of Local Television and The Broadcasting Trust’s income
comes through programmes sales, fees for lecturing, writing, research and production
contracts and consultancy. The Institute and Trust have video production and
editing equipment that are available on an ad hoc basis to not-for-profit and
public service TV project. Both the Institute and Trust support small-scale
TV research initiatives and are very active in on-line discussions and networks.
One member of staff works between the two organisations, which share facets
of the same strategic objective. For the Institute the objective is ‘the
recognition, promotion and provision of small-scale television as public service
broadcasting’ and for the Trust it is ‘community training in TV
production for community and local public service broadcasting.’
Both organisations are marketed by word of mouth and through their products – 2.4TV
technologies, films, publications and research papers.
The Institute has worked on local TV development throughout Britain – notably
on drafts for amendments to the 1995 Broadcasting Bill - and on a project for
the Ministry of Hajj to enhance the safety of pilgrims to Mecca. The Institute
is currently providing guidance on the use of a small-scale TV transmission
equipment by trades unions in South Korea.
The Institute and the Trust work within a regulatory and academic framework,
researching and delivering papers to conferences and academic peers in the
UK and elsewhere.
In December 2003 the Institute delivered a paper in Berlin on media literacy
and television democracy.
In March 2004 a paper on local television as public service broadcasting at
'City TV: future perspectives' in Brussels.
In November 2004 the Institute’s director was elected to the council
of Open Channels for Europe.
Contact details
Dave Rushton
Institute of Local Television
|
Part
financed by the
European Social Fund |
Site
designed and maintained by |
 |
 |
Disclaimer
Whilst we make every effort to ensure our information is complete and up-to-date,
we will not be held responsible for any errors or inaccuracies.