Television
RSLs were also issued to television stations and other organisations which wished to cover a very small area. These licences (also known as Restricted Television Service Licences or RTS licences) restrict power, and hence range, but not operating hours. These licences are valid for four years, and must be competed for on renewal.
The first Local TV station to go on the air in the UK with an analogue RSL licence was TV12 on the Isle of Wight. It commenced broadcasting in October 1998 from the main ITV/BBC transmitter at Rowridge. TV12's studios were initially at the Medina Centre in Newport - later moving to retail premises in the town centre and finally a factory unit on the outskirts of the town. Initially a staff of more than 25 made hundreds of hours of local programmes - most of which were filmed on location in and around the island.
Later local TV licences were awarded for stations in Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Carlisle, Coleraine, Derry, Dundee, Edinburgh, Fawley, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Leicester, Limavady, Londonderry, Manchester, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, Swansea, Taunton, Teeside and York.
In light of the national switch-over from analogue to digital TV the television regulator, Ofcom, extended several analogue Local TV licences until local digital switchover became due in each respective area. This process was complete in October 2012. Meanwhile in February 2009 bids were invited for auctions for the first local digital multiplex licences to be offered in the UK - the first two of which were awarded shortly thereafter. However the awarding of additional licenses was halted in favour of a network of local broadcasters.
Read more about this topic: Restricted Service Licence
Famous quotes containing the word television:
“Cultural expectations shade and color the images that parents- to-be form. The baby product ads, showing a woman serenely holding her child, looking blissfully and mysteriously contented, or the television parents, wisely and humorously solving problems, influence parents-to-be.”
—Ellen Galinsky (20th century)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“It is among the ranks of school-age children, those six- to twelve-year-olds who once avidly filled their free moments with childhood play, that the greatest change is evident. In the place of traditional, sometimes ancient childhood games that were still popular a generation ago, in the place of fantasy and make- believe play . . . today’s children have substituted television viewing and, most recently, video games.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)