ALMOST 80 per cent of Scots are not aware that local television stations are beginning to launch throughout the UK – according to research.
Says an UK-wide survey commissioned ahead of a local TV station launching last week in London – London Live – 79 per cent of Scots respondents said they were unaware of the network of local stations being launched, with strong Westminster backing.
In June, a station for Glasgow is launching (as reported here on allmediascotland), with another soon following in Edinburgh.
Some 44 per of London-based respondents are reported to have said they are unlikely to watch local TV.
While 74 per cent of London-based respondents said – in a similar vein to Scots respondents – they were not aware of local TV, the average for the whole of UK is 75 per cent.
And when told about the service, 39 per cent of London-based respondents said they would actively turn off a local TV channel (37 per cent for the rest of the UK).
That said, 67 per cent of repondents in London said they would watch local news on London Live, with 46 per cent wanting to have ‘documentary/informative programming’ available.
The survey was commissioned by OASYS, which provides software to assist broadcasters schedule content. It was conducted by YouGov and involved a sample size of 2,274 adults.
Among Scotland respondents, over half (52 per cent) said they would be interested in watching a local TV channel, with around 30 per cent saying they would turn off the service.
And Scots respondents were most interested in news content (65 per cent), followed by local ‘documentary/informative programming’ (52 per cent).
Source: OASYS, March 28 2014.
