Bay TV Liverpool L DTPS

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Local Digital Television Programme Service (L-DTPS) Licence Application Form

1. Service name Guidance notes
What is the proposed service name?

The name you will use to identify the service within
broadcasts.
Answer:
Bay TV Liverpool

2. Proposed area Guidance notes
What coverage area does this application relate to?

This licence is advertised for an area based on
predicted transmitter coverage. Coverage areas are
named for their principal conurbations, and are
defined by the technical plan submitted by the
successful applicant for the local multiplex licence.
We are requiring that coverage at each location is at
least as good as that predicted by our modelling.
Answer:
Liverpool
What editorial area do you propose to serve within
the stated coverage area?

The editorial area you propose to target may be a
locality or localities within this coverage area.
Whether this is a sub-set of the area, or the entire
area, your service will be broadcast to the whole
coverage area.This is defined in Section 2 of the ITA.
Answer:
The entire coverage area excluding North Wales.

3. Proposed launch date Guidance notes
What is your state of readiness for launching your
proposed service?

It would be helpful for us to have an idea of how
ready you are to start broadcasting. What is the
earliest likely scenario, and what is the latest?
Answer in fewer than 100 words:
If our application is successful Bay TV has new studio space planned in the Liverpool Innovation Park. We have two
shooting kits with associated edit, and two VJs. Once we were awarded the licence we would enter a period of intensive
strategy consultation. Extending our existing offices, equipping the studio, recruiting further programme and technical
staff, administration, sales and marketing teams would take up to three months. Allowing for a period of test transmissions
we expect to be ready to go live within a year of being awarded a licence. At the latest we would be ready by January 2014.

What would be your indicative launch date to start
broadcasting?

A launch date will be achievable in practice only if
the local multiplex licensee has built out coverage to
your location by that date. As, at the time of this
application, the local multiplex licence has not yet
been awarded, the proposed build-out schedule is
not known yet.
When the local multiplex licence is awarded, its
proposed build-out schedule will be compared with
the indicative launch dates for all L-DTPS services in
Phase 1. As far as possible, we anticipate that the
local multiplex operator will amend the build-out plan
to align with proposed L-DTPS launch dates.
Services will be expected to begin broadcasting
within two years of licence award, unless build-out

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has not been completed by the local multiplex
licensee, or unless Ofcom gives permission for a
later launch if there are unforeseen circumstances.
Your proposed launch date should reflect this
expectation.
Answer as a date: 2 September 2013
Programmes and programming output
Definitions and guidance
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Localness requirement
The studio, from which the service will be broadcast, and/or the main production base of the service, should be
located within the licensed area. (In some instances, and by prior written agreement from Ofcom, it may be
acceptable for the primary studio to be located outside the licensed area. If you make the case in this section for
locating your studio or production base outside the licensed area, then we will confirm if this is acceptable when
awarding the licence.)
News and Current Affairs

For full guidance on news and current affairs programming, applicants should refer to the Invitation to Apply for
an L-DTPS Licence.
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Peak time
Your programming commitments should state how much and which elements of your local programming will be
broadcast during peak time, which is between 6.00pm and 10.30pm.
Material produced for another broadcaster
If you intend to broadcast material produced for an organisation which is different to the applicant please state
what it is and how much (per day or week as appropriate).
4. Programme output Guidance notes
Please answer the questions below. They are
worded to enable you to describe your proposed
programme output in such a way as to
demonstrate that it meets the statutory criteria
for licence award.
Later in this form you will be asked to draft your
own programming commitments. These are
part of what Ofcom will judge your application
on. These will also form the basis of your
licence and Ofcom will judge your ongoing
service against them once you are
broadcasting. It should include a summary of
your proposed programme output as set out
below and reflect your commitment to delivering
a local digital television programme service
according to the statutory criteria.
Questions A to J ask about the first three years
of operation. Question K asks about longer-term
developments.

In granting a licence, Ofcom is required to have
regard to the following factors (see The Local Digital
television Programme Services Order 2012, the
s.244 Order):
(a) the extent to which any proposed service: would:
(i) meet, or would meet, the needs of the area
or locality where it is received;
(ii) would be likely to broaden the range of
television programmes available for viewing by
persons living or working in that area or
locality;and
(iii)would be likely to increase the number and
range of programmes about that area or
locality that are available for such viewing and
to increase the number of programmes made
in that area or locality that would be so
available; and
(b) the ability of the licence application to maintain,
the proposed service throughout the period for which
the licence would be in force .
Please note that a service will be taken for the

1
The text in this guidance section is intended to replace the indicative text that appears in our
consultation at paragraph 7.9.
2
http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/tv-broadcast-licences/local/apply

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purposes of (a)(i) to meet the needs of an area or
locality if, and only if:

(a) its provision bring social or economic
benefits to the area or locality, or to
different categories of persons living or
working in the area or locality; or

(b) it caters for the tastes, interests and
needs of some or all of the different
descriptions of persons living or working
in the area or locality(including, in
particular, tastes, interests and needs that
are of special relevance in the light of the
descriptions of persons who do so live
and work.

Please note that references to persons living or
working in an area or locality include a reference to
persons undergoing education or training in that
area or locality.

Please note that applicants should have regard to
the description of an L-DTPS set out in article 3 of
the s.244 Order including article 3(5) which provides
that a service will fall within an L-DTPS if it includes
or would include a range of programmes which:

(i) facilitate civic understanding and fair and well-
informed debate through coverage of local news
and current affairs;

(ii) reflect the lives and concerns of communities and
cultural interest and traditions in the area or
locality;

(iii) include content that informs, educates and
entertains and is not otherwise available through
a digital programme service which is available
across the UK.

The information given here should be more detailed
than what you set out in your draft Programming
Commitments (later in this form), and will help us
gain a fuller understanding of how you will serve your
target editorial area.

The questions below also relate to local programme
material and locally-produced programme material.
Local programme material is content that is
specifically relevant to the editorial area; locally-
produced programming is that is made within the
area or locality. These two types of programming
may not be substantially different, but where they are
different, applicants should reflect this in their
answers below. This is discussed in more detail in
Section 3 of the Invitation to Apply for an L-DTPS
Licence and applicants should refer to that
document.

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A: Please tell us about your programme service. The following questions may help you describe
your programme service (but should onl y be used as a guide). Where relevant you should also
describe how your service will develop over time (e.g. the amount of local programming may
increase over time, or new elements may be introduced as resources increase):
What are the proposed programming elements of your service and what will be the balance
between the different elements of that programming?
How many hours a day/week of programming do you intend to broadcast in total (for each of the
first three years)?
How many hours a day/week of locally-produced programming do you intend to broadcast (for
each of the first three years)?
Where this is substantially different from the hours of locally-produced programming (above),
how many hours a day/week of local programme material do you intend to broadcast (for each of
the first three years)?
Do you intend to broadcast live output? If so, when and how much do you propose to do? How
might this level change over time?
Will you broadcast in languages other than English (what languages and how much)?
How much of your output will be original i.e., produced for your service alone?
Will all your local programme material be locally produced?
How much do you intend to repeat programming?
Answer in fewer than 1,000 words:

We envisage a transformational change with the advent of L-DTPS, delivering truly local TV which is consistently
relevant to the audience it serves. Bay TV Liverpool will not only feature news from the Liverpool City Region in its
bulletins, but will also stimulate debate and encourage local residents to engage in a dialogue on political and civic
issues that affect them, their families and their communities.

Transmission hours
Weekdays will start with at 7am three hours of news, sport, weather and features. With the working title The Pool,
there will be three editions, each interspersed with a half-hour feed from Highway cameras.

It will be fast-paced and designed to be watched in bite-sized chunks by an early morning up and out audience that
wants its information sharp and to the point.
More in depth coverage of local politics, current affairs, arts, entertainment and sport will be provided through a
series of themed programmes across the day.

Programme mix
In Year 1 we will broadcast our own material on weekdays, between 7am and 6.30pm. We will carry two and a half
hours of news every weekday and four and a half hours of locally-produced non-news programming. One new local
feature programme will be added to the schedule each day.

Starting on Day 1 with a stockpile of programmes they will be repeated across the afternoons with no programme
being repeated more than four times in the week.

On Friday we shall extend our hours by a one hour sports programme, a one hour chat show and a one hour debate,
closing down at 9pm.

On Saturdays between 9am and 5pm we shall run repeats of our features.
On Sunday a religious feature and an hour-long act of worship are interspersed between repeats of our features.

In Year 2 we shall add three quarters of an hour to The Pool, and double the number of new local features.
On Mondays to Thursdays we shall add a 30 min talk programme between 6 and 6.30 with close down at 6.30

Weekends
Between 5pm and 10pm we shall add recordings by local bands. We will assume in Year 2 that these will include 1
hour of first-run material each day and that the rest of the time is repeats.

By Year 3, The Pool runs to two hours in the morning, bought-in programmes boost our own features, we add a
talent showcase to the bands, and close down is at 11pm.

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These programmes will be a carefully-balanced mix of public service elements, including education, training, health,
housing and employment, as well as the environment, the voluntary sector and the activities of faith groups. Other
regular programmes will cover gardening, pets, travel, and local history.

Live programmes
Apart from our morning show, we see the virtue of a live news, sports and weather bulletin at lunchtime and early
evening, together with business news. In due course, we plan to broadcast some concerts and sporting events live.

Languages
All our programmes will be in English but we shall explore with some migrant and expat communities (eg Merseyside
Polonia and Liverpool Chinatown,- Liverpool has Britains second-oldest Chinese community) the desirability of
making or collaborating on programmes in their languages either as joint ventures or by giving them access to our
facilities.

Original material
We expect to engage in a programme-share/exchange with other L-DTPS licensees and to retransmit Euronews in the
early hours but, with this exception, we anticipate that all our local programmes will be produced by us or
commissioned from locally-based independents.

Repeats
At least in the early days, we shall repeat much of our material throughout the week. We plan to make one new
feature programme every day and to commission one new programme each week. In Year 1 each in-house
programme will be repeated once each day (commissioned material more often) and across the weekend.

Certain programmes, of more specialist interest, may not initially warrant weekly editions or daily repeats; thus we
may make some periodical-style programmes with monthly editions and weekly repeats.

Platforms
Television is now received on a range of platforms and BTVL believes it is essential, for viewers and advertisers, that
content is broadcast as widely as possible. Channel 8 on Freeview will deliver huge salience and is commercially
potent.

However, BTVL believes that convergence is already a reality and it is therefore essential that our programmes are
easily accessible via mobile phones and other hand-held devices from the outset.

In collaboration with AIMES Grid Services, our Liverpool-based digital infrastructure partner, a Liverpool University
CIC, Bay TV Liverpool will deliver its programmes via the internet, mobile phones and other hand-held devices, via
VoD. Furthermore we have a development project to enable cross-platform simulcasts, live-streamed concurrently
with the linear output via Freeview, Sky and Virgin. This is particularly important in providing access for viewers
where signal coverage is weak or non-existent. Our online service will also make BTVL immensely interactive from the
outset and highly attractive to advertisers, offering goods and services via fast-growing mobile platforms, with clear
revenue implications.

Given our belief that a local television station should be more than a mere purveyor of entertainment and
information but should play an active role in its community, we shall explore ways in which our programmes can
themselves instigate or stimulate new projects. Our Going Green series will work with organisations such as Friends
of the Earth, local authority environmental health departments and commercial providers.

Audience measurement.
Advertising and programme sponsorship are of vital importance to the commercial viability of the station.
We recognise that advertisers expect audience data when buying airtime and for this reason we will develop a
system for monitoring audience figures.
In partnership with AIMES Grid Services we will develop an audience monitoring group in 500 selected households,
representing a cross-section of the audience. In each home a monitor (paid a nominal fee) will be appointed to
record, in an online diary, the number of programmes watched. This information will be extrapolated to identify the
audience figure.

B: How will your programming meet the needs of the area where it is received?

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To meet the needs of an area, one must first identify them. We commissioned a research project from Media and IT
Services which suggested that audiences would respond to innovative daytime programming, to locally-originated
first-run programmes and, in particular to the concept of viewer-generated programmes. These are all significant
elements of our proposal.

We shall endeavour to cover the widest possible range of programming but, to be certain that we are reflecting the
needs of local people, we shall invite suggestions and proposals for programmes, strands and individual items from
our viewers.

Neighbourhood involvement
Programmers for regional television companies face the challenge of having to try to reflect the lives and likes of a
geographically disparate population. They are restricted by the size of their region from paying more than lip-service
to the needs of small communities. But, for Bay TV Liverpool, our local remit means that we shall be able to major on
them. We shall carry news about local societies and clubs, highlight local planning issues, showcase local bands and
give a voice to small communities. By working closely with the community we expect to be able to identify their
needs and to devise ways to meet them.

Viewer participation
On its IPTV platform (www.baytvliverpool.com) launched in 2011, Bay TV Liverpool has encouraged contributions and
active participation in the making of programmes from our viewers. Through our links with social landlords in
outlying areas of the Liverpool City Region we are already giving airtime to local people and their local stories and we
shall develop this into a series of regular slots in our schedule.

Digital inclusion
We have an excellent track record of work throughout the Liverpool in stimulating the uptake of internet services by
traditionally digitally-excluded communities. Under the terms of our partnership in an innovative project led by
AIMES Grid Services we are delivering content for the OurNet portal, which aims to encourage the take-up of
broadband in a number of areas in Runcorn, North Liverpool and St Helens.

Our staff already have a history of working with media in the community, having established a pioneering pilot
neighbourhood television service in Knowsley in 2000 and, more recently, set up Wirral TV, another community
television service.

We have established links with Chambers of Commerce and FE Colleges throughout the Liverpool City Region, with a
particular view to helping develop training and work opportunities for young people.

Outside the city centre
We are sensitive to the position of audiences in Southport and Warrington, important towns which appear to fall
between two contiguous coverage areas but whose populations have strong ties and associations with Liverpool. We
shall serve them via our VoD and streaming services over the internet and mobile phones.

We shall also seek to increase accessibility, after Year 1, by developing six remote studios across the city region.
These will be invaluable, not least, for down-the-line interviews, and will help to encourage a sense of participation in
those who live some way from the city centre.

C: How will your programming broaden the number and range of TV programmes available for
viewing in the area?


Politics
Our coverage of local politics will be broader and deeper than anything which has preceded it. Our morning
programme will aim to include an interview with a local politician or representative of a business or public body
every day and Talking Point, our daily half-hour interview, will often include politicians as its subject.

Pavement Politics will give viewers an unprecedented insight into the work and preoccupations of their elected
representatives; From the Council Chamber will cover the local issues currently under discussion while our Friday
night debate, In the Mix, will give local people the opportunity to quiz their councillors and MPs on specific subjects.

Sport
Local sport is dominated by the two Premier League football teams and, while we will report on their fortunes, we
shall not ignore the lower-league clubs, such as Tranmere Rovers, Marine FC and AFC Liverpool, with great ambitions

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and wide followings. The former Liverpool captain Robbie Fowler will co-host a weekly phone-in with an Everton
colleague. Our partnership with ISN TV (http://isntelevision.tv) will, thanks to their vital Premier League licence, give
us privileged access to press conferences and other otherwise inaccessible sources of material.

But there is far more to sport on Merseyside than football and, as well as both codes of rugby, our coverage of local
sports will extend to others not regularly seen on regional television including boxing, athletics, gymnastics, golf,
basketball and MMA. Liverpool as a city has the most vibrant amateur boxing scene in the UK, and we will reflect this
through regular coverage of amateur shows and a weekly boxing magazine show.

The north west coast is known as the golf coast and we have two Open Championship venues on our patch which
gives us huge scope for covering the local golf scene. We are in talks with the Royal Liverpool Golf Club about a
regular programme hosted at Hoylake.

Arts
It is many years now since the regional broadcasters ran regular arts magazine programmes. With Liverpools wealth
of arts venues and the tradition of major events like the Sea Odyssey and the Mathew Street Festival, there is no
shortage of material. We shall extend our popular weekly whats on and produce regular, collaborative feature
coverage of the cultural life of the city region.

Religion
Regional television is a comparative stranger to religion and we shall have weekly coverage of religious and ethical
subjects, including worship from all religions and denominations. Our staff includes a former producer of award-
winning religious programmes for Granada.

Education
We do not think local schools will need much persuasion to contribute material to our programmes. We shall include
regular coverage of initiatives in local schools and offer school students a chance to air their views.

Rural issues
Our transmission area extends well beyond the city limits into the rural communities of West Lancashire and we will
make programmes which reflect the concerns of a country and agricultural audience: a great opportunity to inform
and enthuse city-born youngsters about life beyond the urban sprawl.

D: How will your programming increase the range of programmes made in or about the area?


Independent producers
The Liverpool city region has a wealth of talented and experienced independent producers with whom we shall work
closely to identify areas of life which would benefit from new programmes and new thinking about programme styles
and formats.

Viewer producers
Our policy of seeing the audience as producers as much as consumers will inform the development of programme
strands which have their heart in the community and will not only increase the number and range of programmes
made about the area but will mean that they bear an authenticity which will truly engage the viewing public.

Every programme we make will be of local interest; each will concern itself with issues and stories from the Liverpool
City Region and will be made within it. Some of our material will be unashamedly parochial but many programmes
will deal with subjects of interest to a wider audience. Programmes about gardening, cooking, cycling, pet-care and
so on will be made in Merseyside with Merseyside personalities but will clearly carry lessons of nationwide relevance.

Rich in detail
Because we are a local channel whose function is to produce local programming, we will have the luxury of exploring
the richness of local life. Sometimes the increased range will be reflected in the specifics of a programme. Thus while
network gardening programmes tend towards a one-size-fits-all approach, our programmes will have the leisure to
look at gardens with all the different soils and weather conditions (seaside gardening is a very particular skill) and will
cater for the many people with backyards rather than gardens.

Similarly our cooking strand, The World on Your Plate, will reflect the rich variety of ethnic cooking within the area.
Other food strands will feature local recipes, farmers markets and suppliers giving them exposure on a national
stage. Following the same principle our cycling coverage will encourage riders to test-drive new country trails and
review city cycle-routes. We shall rigorously apply the same mix of local and national relevance to all our

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programmes

An open schedule
We outline below our wish to open up our schedule to local bodies and communities and we would like to extend
this principle, on a commercial basis, to businesses, public bodies and specialist interest groups. We will offer them
airtime, either for their own home-grown content or, if they prefer it, for programmes made collaboratively.

Beyond the Pool
Nor will we forget the significant Scouse Diaspora and, given Liverpools status as 'soccer capital' and a World City,
we consider it vital that BTVL is delivered on all possible platforms. Thus, along with delivery to mobiles and standard
PCs, BTVL will also be formatted for delivery via Google TV, and other smart TVs from Day 1. Our programmes will be
capable of being seen anywhere in the world and we are certain that this will be appreciated by expat Liverpudlians
and a wider audience everywhere. This will give the station a far from parochial feel and a global reach that will
enrich our home-grown content.

E: How will your programming bring social or economic benefits to the area, or to different
categories of persons living or working in the area?


Instead of being seen as another form of entertainment passively received, local television has the potential, through
strategic partnerships, to become a part of the drive for social cohesion and, especially in a city like Liverpool, a
genuine agent for regeneration.

Economic benefits

Employment and Enterprise
We will ourselves create up to fifteen new jobs.

Our schedule will inevitably include many programmes and items which reflect the enterprise and initiative of local
residents. Our employment-themed programmes will endeavour to develop this spirit: in our employment
programme World of Work by publicising job vacancies and new opportunities for job-seekers; and, in Business
Lunch, by establishing links between entrepreneurs and funding agencies and venture capitalists.

We will work closely with the regions universities and FE Colleges to publicise their training schemes and World of
Work will carry simple financial education as well as advice on saving and financial management. It will include a
Dragons Den where young people can practice job interviews and try out business ideas.
Mobile phones are increasingly used to carry cvs and we shall feature a selection every week to try to help young
people into employment.

Commerce
Since there is little history among local SMEs of television advertising, few potential advertisers will have their own
in-house production facilities. To ensure a consistent quality of video-ads, we will offer advertisers a package which
includes the production and transmission costs of their commercial. We have engaged a local independent producer,
Stick Media, to be the principal production house for commercials. In this way we hope to make it easier for
advertisers to buy time and, at the same time, to provide work for local media companies.

The arts
The effect on box-office of a brief trail on television is well-known and we expect our programmes highlighting the
wealth of the arts and creative industries to have a beneficial effect on the overall visitor economy

Social benefits

Through our work with social landlords we have an insight into the concerns and needs of communities with high or
systemic unemployment and will work with them on programmes which can help bring their strategies to fruition.
Our on-going work in digital inclusion will aim to improve access to government services.

Civic engagement
Local politicians and leaders of private and public enterprise will appear regularly in our schedule and we shall
encourage viewers to interact and ask the questions they want answered. We are confident that this will reduce the
gap between governors and the governed and that both sides may be better informed about each others aspirations

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and needs.

Health
In line with our view that a local tv station can be more than a source of entertainment we wish, in due course, to use
technical advances to extend our activities beyond conventional broadcasting.
We are about to engage with a Liverpool-based programme (a partnership between public, private and third sector
organisations, including Liverpool Community Health and a social housing provider) that aims to manage wellbeing in
later life via telemedicine.

F: How will your programming cater for the tastes, interests and needs of people in the area?


Having dealt with needs in section 4B we concentrate here on tastes and interests.

Consultation and collaboration
As with needs, the key is to determine what are the audiences tastes and interests and to encourage viewers to
contribute their own material by way of illustration. Collaboration is central. Our IPTV platform already has a page
where viewers are encouraged to upload their videos and our digital service will have a permanent Suggestion Box
page for viewers. Our series Putting You in the Picture will encourage viewers to upload video-blogs to the stations
website.
We plan to have at least yearly meetings within each of the boroughs of Liverpool City Region to engage with the
public and discuss how we may better meet their wishes.

Sharing the schedule
We recognise the need to think imaginatively about how to engage with our audience. The nature and history of
broadcast television has meant that programming has been very much a top-down affair where broadcasters decided
what the public should watch and when. The television channels of tomorrow will have to develop a much more
open and flexible attitude to their viewers; they will need to learn to see them not as passive recipients but as active
partners and to cultivate a less possessive approach to the channel and its airtime. It will not do simply to offer
viewers a token half hour here and there for their own content; broadcasters will have to learn to share their time
and space with individuals and groups producing relevant material. This approach has always been enshrined in Bay
TVs philosophy and we will continue to expand it.

Training
Old habits die hard however and it may take some time for viewers to recognise the opportunities which the new
local channel offers. We shall accordingly run a series of workshop/programmes in which local residents are taken
through the mechanics of devising, shooting and editing their own material using a variety of formats and platforms,
and how to deliver them (via upload or other means) to Bay TV.

Bands
We have mentioned the importance of sport and another central facet of Liverpool life is music. We will want to give
as much opportunity as we can for local bands to showcase their music and will work to find the best place in the
schedule for the audience.

Disability
We are also anxious that the presentation of our programmes reflects the aspirations of disabled people. We are
thus consulting with DaDaFest, the disability and deaf arts agency, about the best ways to use deaf and disabled
presenters, and how to make programmes which are accessible and of interest to them in a way which integrates
them into our schedule without patronising or stigmatising them. Our agreement with DaDaFest (See section 12 E)
sets out our intention to collaborate on programmes and to work in partnership with Liverpool Community College,
on a media training scheme for people with disabilities.

G: How will your programming facilitate civic understanding and fair and well-informed debate
through coverage of local news and current affairs?

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Media partner
Our partnership with Mercury Press and Media Ltd, one of the leading names in journalism in Liverpool and across
the North West for more than 40 years, gives Bay TV Liverpool a partner with instant access to breaking stories
across the North West and privileged links to the extensive archive and list of contacts the agency has built up during
its life.

Local politics
Our morning magazine, The Pool will always include interviews with local politicians or community or business
leaders.

Our regular weekly programme, Pavement Politics, will feature a local politician as he or she goes about their ward
business. We shall film them giving answers to constituents on their doorsteps and in their front rooms and will give
them the opportunity to explain their aspirations and the challenges they face and to answer specific questions sent
in by their constituents.

Council Chamber will provide daily reports from council chambers and offices across the districts (a kind of Today in
Parliament) with, when feasible, live coverage of Mayors Questions.

Topical debate
Our Friday night debate In the Mix will cover topical issues with an audience and a panel of local people and will
provide politicians with a platform to give their views. Recognising that the BTVL Region extends well beyond the
confines of the city, In The Mix will come from different local authority areas across the region, giving those
communities the opportunity to air issues specific to them and the wider region.

District studios
We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Edge Hill University for a formal partnership, one element of
which includes the regular use of their fully-equipped studio. This will mean that we can conduct debates and
interviews with councillors from the north of the area (eg Southport, Ormskirk, Skelmersdale and Wigan) without
their having to travel to Liverpool. In this way we will foster individual districts identity while encouraging a greater
engagement with Liverpool.

It is a truism to say that some voters are disenchanted with government at all levels but we are confident that this
sort of regular coverage will raise their interest in the work of their elected representatives and, similarly, encourage
councillors and MPs to greater engagement with their constituents

Track record
Bay TV Liverpools IPTV platform already covers local politics extensively and was the only local television station to
be invited to carry live a debate organised by Liverpool University between the mayoral candidates. When the debate
was cancelled we arranged, at a few hours notice, to carry in full a similar debate organised by a Liverpool church.
We are also the only tv company to provide regular coverage of Mayoral Questions.

Voting
We plan to develop an application for mobile phones enabling viewers to interact with programmes. Essentially a
voting facility, it would give viewers the opportunity, for example, to vote during debates; state their preference for
the player of the match in certain sports events; or select the winner in talent shows.

H: How will your programming reflect the lives and concerns of communities and cultural interest
and traditions in the area?


We shall continue the extensive coverage by our IPTV service of, for instance, the Arabic Arts Festival, DaDaFest, the
UK's Disability and Deaf Arts festival and the MILAP Festival of Indian Arts.

We intend to commission high hearted theatre, an Arts Council funded company which specialises in site-specific
theatre, to run a series of performances in different parts of the transmission area. The producers would spend some
time with local residents researching local stories and traditions and then, in continuing association with local people,
devise and mount a play in significant landmarks within the particular district. Giving local people the opportunity to
research their own history and bring it to life will, we think, increase the sense of local identity.

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Local History
Older people everywhere have fascinating stories to tell and we shall reflect our local heritage in two initial strands.
In Children of the War, in which men and women tell us what it was like to live in Liverpool during the war. They are a
precious source of vital information which we wish to archive before it is lost to us for ever.
Old Salts will reflect the richness of Liverpools maritime history. Sailors and dockers will reminisce about the days
when the city was the British Empires second city and the engine of its prosperity. We hope this will encourage
younger viewers to explore the history of their region.

Multicultural voices
We will give a voice to BRM communities, seeking to reflect the pattern of their life and working with them to
encourage them to make their own material. There is, in the long-established immigrant communities, a similar
wealth of local history, especially about the way of life of early immigrants; we intend to capture it first-hand before
the opportunity disappears for ever. Experience shows that such reminiscences are of enormous interest to younger
generations

We are talking to the Merseyside Network for Change about a series of programmes for and about Asylum Seeker,
Refugee and Migrant Worker Communities and we will continue to cover the work of the Muslim Enterprise
Development Service.

Integration
We shall wish to cover a number of other areas (womens issues, disability for instance) which deserve more airtime.
We are cautious however about creating specialist niches and our approach will be to integrate these topics within
our general feature programmes.

Charitable agencies
We will run a regular programme strand in collaboration with (especially local) charities to publicise their work, to
encourage local participation and to help raise funds.

Spin-off Sponsorship
Huge amounts of money are raised each year by people who are sponsored to run marathons, climb mountains, etc.
Excellent efforts but with no intrinsic value. We plan to work with the voluntary services in a competition to
encourage people to raise sponsorship with a spin-off. Instead of running, climbing and so on, people would be
sponsored to undertake socially useful tasks: painting an elderly persons home, tidying eyesores or clearing litter.
There would be a prize for the most imaginative scheme.

I: How will your programming include content that informs, educates and entertains and is not
otherwise available through a digital programme service which is available across the UK?


Informing

Our daily Talking Point programme will be an interview with civic leaders, clergy, police, firemen, doctors, lawyers,
charity workers, and above all ordinary people who talk about their lives and work.

All our programmes will aim to disseminate useful information: Arts Alive will include a Whats On slot; similar
information will be included in our discrete purpose-made programmes about schools, jobs, health, consumer advice
and local sport.

Our agreement with DaDaFest will give us a valuable and unique partner in the field of disability and will vitally
inform our coverage. The arts are a particularly fruitful way in to the topic and will help us in our ambition to
integrate the subject of disability seamlessly into our schedule.
We shall work with Merseyside Police to explain the work of the force and to join them as appropriate in campaigns
to reduce crime.

We shall run a weekly programme about religion and faith which reflects the diversity of religious belief in the city as
well as relevant secular issues.

Educating

Universities and schools
Our agreement with Edge Hill University will, as we have said, give us a studio in the north of the region. But the
partnership runs wider. Edge Hill has specific expertise in sports science, cultural studies and health and wellbeing.

13
The university is happy to give us access to their specialist research and we shall work closely with the academic staff
and students on a number of collaborative programmes in these areas.

The universitys extensive links with schools, thanks to its history as a college of education, will be a considerable
advantage in our planned regular schools programme. We are talking to the university about a similar series about
HE/FE, largely informed and even made by students including aspects of life as a student.

Health
Our IPTV platform carries a regular as-for-live health strand with news, advice and information direct from a GPs
surgery and we shall develop these into a weekly interactive half-hour programme, in which our doctor not only
deals with topical issues but answers general queries sent in by our audience and refers viewers to helpful links.
This pioneering programme will work with PCTs and their successor-bodies as well as foundations such as Coram Life
to bring education about health and well-being to schools and young people.

Entertaining

We shall also provide a showcase for local talent with extended programmes where film-makers, musicians, singers
and poets can have the time to demonstrate their talents. We plan a competition called Merseysides Got Talent
which perhaps needs no further elaboration.

We shall work with the regional film centre FACT to give wide coverage of new films and with the team running their
well-established tenantspin community programme to extend coverage and thus give a yet wider audience access to
a broadcast audience.

On Monday to Thursday Liam Fogarty will host a relaxed talk-show with guests from all walks of life, while, on Friday,
Pete Price chats to guests from the world of show-business and entertainment.

J: What will you broadcast outside of your planned hours of local programme and locall y-produced
material? Do you intend to share programming with other L-DTPS licensees? From whom do you
propose to acquire any third-party programming and what will the nature of this programming be?
Please illustrate with a sample schedule for one week (if necessary you may provide one for each of
the first three years, if you see your programme plans developing over that time-frame); you will not
be held to this illustration, onl y to your Programming Commitments (below).

Answer in fewer than 500 words (excluding illustrative schedule):

Outside hours
Inevitably our main concern is to encourage viewers to watch our channel during the day while we transmit our own
programmes. In Years 1 and 2, while we are building up our programme capacity, there may be times during the day
when repeats become self-defeating and we close our own service down. We intend to investigate the re-
transmission of the Euronews service during the day and in the early hours of the morning.

Other licensees
We expect to exchange material with other L-DTPS licensees; the new association will presumably be a marketplace
or forum for planned joint programming.

Teleshopping
We shall also investigate the potential of Teleshopping to attract an audience and, in parallel, to generate a little
income. From our point of view the obvious time to trial it would be the hours between closedown and 4am but we
shall wait to see if there is an audience at this time. We would not envisage running Teleshopping during the day.

Independent producers
As we have said Liverpool is particulalrly rich in independent producers and we shall want to talk to as many as
possible about working together.

We have informal agreements in place with two: Hurricane Films and Showrunners Network Ltd to commission
programmes from them.

Hurricane Films have a fine track record of productions for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, PBS etc, and we would expect
them to produce a number of the local features in our schedule.

Showrunners Network is an interactive media production company based in a community in Speke, which provides
workshops and training in various forms of media ranging from film to radio. They work closely with young people,
especially in the field of music and we anticipate commissioning edgy youth-orientated material from them.

14

Confirmatory letters or emails are attached.

Archives
We would like to draw on the wealth of the NW Film Archive to run a series of local history programmes but also on
the more informal and possibly still-undiscovered archive of amateur local home movie-makers. We will invite video
and cine-makers to unearth their films of the Liverpool and region of the more recent past, a subject of constant
interest to local audiences.

We shall showcase films made by the many talented local film-makers who so significantly lack a platform for their
work.

Other providers
We will talk to smaller community-based operations, such as Wirral TV to explore the possibility of using their
material. At the same time we appreciate their need for a separate identity and will not wish to affect their
relationship with their own specific community.

K. How do you see the service developing after the first three years?

After three years the station will be established as a major presence in the Liverpool City Region, anticipate having
won awards for innovation, and we shall expect to build on the Liverpool brand to export our programmes and
projects across the region and beyond.

Programme sales
Even after the BBC income ends officially we shall hope to sell on our material to them and other networks.

Night time schedule
By Year 3 we shall have a clear idea of the audiences interest in the hours after close down. We will consider options
for broadcasting minority-interest material to be recorded by potential viewers (along the lines of the BBCs Open
Learning).

Open Channel
At the heart of our principles lies the belief that the service should encourage viewers to have a sense of ownership
of it and, with this in mind, we shall work towards greater public participation especially in programme-making and in
deciding what programmes are made.
We expect to have identified a substantial number of private and public bodies who will be making use of the
channels airtime for their own material.

Cross-platform delivery
We are particularly excited about the plans of our partners AIMES Grid Services to develop cross-platform streaming
of our content. This will make a step-change in Internet usage in the Liverpool City Region. (Ofcom data
demonstrates that although the Liverpool City region has significantly below UK average uptake of Digital television,
uptake of Internet Access is significantly below average.)

The system would deliver content to a variety of end devices such as mobile and tablet. Building our audience in this
way brings obvious financial and social benefits.

In support of a broadcasting dialogue between the provider and the community, a new application would facilitate
crowd-sourced news videos and opportunities to comment on news items.

Live programmes and OBs
We shall wish to make more live programmes. and to invest in mobile technology enabling us to operate Outside
Broadcasts of some of the many sporting events (Liverpool International Tennis Tournament, Mersey Marathon ),
and festivals (Sound City, Matthew Street, Arabic Arts, Brouhaha International).

Training
We intend, as appropriate, to work with FE/HE partners to run training schemes for young journalists, technicians,
editors and engineers and to go some way to creating jobs for them to do, either directly or by helping to build up
the resource of local independent producers.

Sponsorship
We would hope in due course to sponsor local schemes or events, especially where they lent themselves to

15
television coverage. The theatre festival would be an early example of what we have in mind but we would be happy
to engage with any charity or enterprise which encouraged a sense of belonging and made Liverpool a place where
people are happy to live.

16
Programming Commitments
Guidance notes
Please draft the Programming Commitments for your proposed service.
If your body corporate is awarded a licence, these Programming Commitments will form the basis of what we put
in the licence.
The Programming Commitments drafted here are subject to Ofcoms prior written agreement, and we may
require the drafting to be amended, for example, if it does not sufficiently reflect legislative requirements.
Your draft Programming Commitments should be consistent with, and summarise, the answers you have already
given in the previous section of this application form.
You should keep in mind that it will be a condition of any licence to meet the Programming Commitments: this is
something you are required to do at all times and if you fail to do so you could face sanctions including revocation
of the licence. They should therefore be precise and achievable.
5. Programming Commitments
Programming output
[This should be a summary of the
answer you have given in section 3,
in no more than 250 words]
Our main emphasis will be on news and we intend to run at least
two and a half hours a day of live news from the start.
In Year 1 we will broadcast four and a half hours of locally-produced
features on topics from current affairs and politics to gardening and
cycling. One new local feature programme will be added to the
schedule each day.
These features will be repeated across the afternoons with no
programme being repeated more than five times in the week.

On Friday we shall extend our hours adding an hour each of sport, a
chat show and topical debate, closing down at 9pm.
On Saturdays between 9am and 5pm we shall run repeats of our
features.
On Sunday a religious feature and an hour-long act of worship are
interspersed between repeats of our features.

In Year 2 we shall add three quarters of an hour to The Pool, and
double the number of new local features.
On Mondays to Thursdays we shall add a 30 min talk programme
between 6 and 6.30 with close down at 6.30.

At weekends we feature performances by local bands between 5pm
and 10pm.

By Year 3, The Pool runs to three hours in the morning, we add
entertainment talent to the bands and close down is at 11pm.
Hours of local programming per
day/week

First run:
Repeats:
Year 1

Year 2 Year 3 onwards
17 hrs pw 23 hrs pw 41 hrs pw
Hours of local programming per
day/week in peak-time (6.00-
10.30pm)
Year 1

Year 2 Year 3 onwards

17

First run:
Repeats:
35 hrs pw
Hours and scheduling of local
news and current affairs
programming (e.g. how many
bulletins a day and of what
duration?)
First run:
Repeats:
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 onwards
3 x hr news
magazines + 2 x hr
news programmes
3 x hr news
magazine + 2 x hr
news programmes
1 x 3 hr news
magazine + 2 x hr
news programmes
+ 5 x hr local
politics
None None None

18
About your organisation
6. Company details Guidance notes
Provide the name of the entity submitting this
application and the type of body corporate.
Please provide copies of the companys
Memorandum, Articles of Association and Certificate
of Incorporation (or, where it is another type of body
corporate, its founding documents and those which
set out its objectives and rules of operation).

Answers:

Only a body corporate can hold a licence. A body
corporate is almost always a (registered) company,
although it can also include, for example, some
bodies created by statute (an individual or a
registered charity on its own is not a body corporate).
Your application must therefore be submitted on
behalf of a registered company (or other body
corporate). There are different types of company
(e.g. a company limited by shares, a community
interest company, a company limited by guarantee)
and we need to know what kind of company is
applying for a licence.
We will not consider a licence award to a company if
it has not yet been registered. If the application is
successful the licence will be awarded to the body
corporate (e.g. company) submitting this application.
Company (or other body corporate) name:

Bay TV Liverpool
Date of registration:

9 July 2003
Company registration number:

4826300
Type of company (or other body corporate):

Private Limited Company
Where your body is not a company, please
explain how it meets the requirement to be a body
corporate:

7. Ownership Guidance notes
Please provide details of who controls and who owns
the body corporate (e.g. company) applying for this
licence, and on what basis this control and ownership
is achieved.
The information provided must include:
details of all the subscribers, members,
shareholders, or whatever is appropriate for
the applicant company (or body corporate),
and state the extent of their interest (e.g. %
shareholding) (if the company will be
controlled by members, but the members
are not yet recruited, please say so), and the
date they acquired such interest. (You will
also be asked about the board of directors in

Ofcom needs to know about the ownership of the
company (or other body corporate) applying for this
licence, and any issues regarding its control. We will
also consider how the company (or body corporate)
will be run (this will usually be specified in the
Articles of Association of the company).
In relation to exerting control over the applicant, the
information provided should include the name,
address and DOB of any individuals or corporate
bodies in accordance with whose wishes the
applicants affairs are or will be conducted in most
cases or in significant respects.

19
7 & 8 below.)
details of any individual, company or other
body that may exert control over the
applicant.
Answer:
Bay TV Liverpool is a limited liability company in the control of its shareholders.
The current shareholder are: Chris Johnson 26%; Chris Kerr 26%; Lynne Kayne 5%; Kathleen Short 5%; Albert Shepherd 5%;
Paul Eeles 5%
28% of the shareholding is unallocated.
In the event that the L-DTPS licence for Liverpool is secured new shares in the company will be issued so that new investors
will acquire equity in the proportions agreed: AIMES Grid Services Ltd (30%) and Mr Jack Stopforth (15%)

--

20
Ability to maintain the service management and operations
Ofcom is required to have regard to the ability of the applicant for the licence to maintain the
service.
8. Management structure
3
Guidance notes
With regard to the applicant please provide:
A list of directors, indicating who is the
managing director and/or chair (please see
question 8 regarding directors details);
An indication of management structure (e.g.
management committee or equivalent, if
applicable); and/or
Information about who would be responsible
for the day to day management and running
of the service (there is a separate question
regarding other staff below).

In addition to the notes above on ownership, Ofcom
is also required to evaluate the human resources
involved in the running of a service. Answers should
demonstrate how those who have relevant
experience will work for the service.
Answer:
Jack Stopforth (Chairman)
Prof Dennis Kehoe
Ian Kellgren
Viv Tyler

Chris Johnson, Managing Director and CEO
Chris Kerr, Programme Director

Chris Johnson, as Managing Director, will have overall responsibility for the day to day management of the company, and,
as Head of News, will be the managing editor of our news service. As MD of Mercury Press for the last 14 years he has
extensive experience of managing a team of journalists and photographers.

Chris Kerr, as Programme Director, will manage the features production team. As a former executive producer and station
manager at Granadas Liverpool studio, he has similar experience of managing productions and leading a team.

9. Compliance Guidance notes
Please explain how you will put in place appropriate
procedures to ensure and maintain compliance with
the Broadcasting Code and other licence
requirements.

All licensees are required to comply with the Ofcom
Broadcasting Code and other licence conditions. The
Broadcasting Code
4
can be found on the Ofcom
website at
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broad
cast-codes/

3
Names of any individuals except directors may be redacted in the for publication version.
4
The Broadcasting Code is referred to as the Standards Code in the L-DTPS licence.

21
Every member of the editorial staff will be required to be familiar with the contents of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.
Referring up
Journalists and producers will be encouraged, where they think there are compliance issues in a programme, to refer up at
the earliest possible moment.
The first point of reference will be either the Head of News or the Director of Programmes who may, as necessary, take
advice from the companys lawyer.
Compliance forms
Every producer will be required to sign off each programme using a standard form certifying that there are no compliance
issues. This form must be given to the Director of Programmes at least two hours before transmission.
Acquired material
The same principles will apply to all acquired material. Programmes commissioned from independent producers must be
accompanied by a compliance form signed by the producer.
Live programmes
Producers of live programmes must also complete a compliance form which must flag up items and areas where there may
be compliance issues (eg interviews). This must be given to the Director of Programmes an hour before transmission.
Live programmes will also always be monitored by a Programme Executive (CEO/ Head of News or Director of
Programmes).

10. Director profiles Guidance notes
Please provide information regarding each director as
set out below (some or all of which may be regarded
as confidential).
Answer (for each director please complete a
separate table):

Ofcom needs to know about the proposed directors
and chair of the applicant. Some or all of the
information given in this section will usually be
removed from the publicly available copy of this
application form. (All applications will be published
on our website.)
Name:

Jack Stopforth, MBE (Chairman),
Name:

Prof Dennis Kehoe
Name:

Ian Kellgren
Name:

Vivienne Tyler
Name:

Christopher Johnson, CEO
Name:

Christopher Kerr

1

2

22
11. Staffing structure Guidance notes
What is the staffing structure of your proposed
service? Provide a job title for key positions and
indicate any unpaid as well as paid staff. This may be
provided as a diagram or organisation chart. If the
applicant body is a large organisation, it is not
necessary to provide an exhaustive list: key
management and an indication of total size will
suffice. In a small organisation, it may be appropriate
to list everyone.

The legislation requires that Ofcom has regard to the
applicants ability to maintain the proposed service
(as well as to ensure the applicant is fit and proper to
hold the licence). As well as its ownership,
management and operations, the proposed staffing
of the service is relevant to these considerations.
Answer in fewer than 400 words, plus organisation chart (optional):
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will lead the operation, have overall control of the day-to-day running of the station and
will be ultimately responsible for the output.

The CEO/ Head of News, Programme Director, and Sales Director will report to the Board of Directors, making detailed
activity reports to Board meetings which will be scheduled at least once a month.
Rather than employing a Finance Director, we will outsource the roll and have held talks with a leading supplier in the field,
e-FM Financial Management, with a view to securing its services.
At launch Bay TV Liverpool will have a complement of salaried staff numbering 19 in total.
This will consist of:
Management team 3
PA/Admin support 1
Sales 3
Newsroom 5
Features/production 7

Provision has been made in the business plan to use casual staff to provide holiday and sickness cover.

Chart attached.

12. Applicants experience Guidance notes
Please describe the history of your group, and any
relevant experience of the group, or the individuals
within the group, by answering the questions below.

Ofcom is required to consider whether an applicant
has the ability to run a local television service for the
licence period (up to 12 years). To aid our
consideration we want to know about any relevant
experience the applicant group as a whole, or the
individuals involved, may have.
A. Please provide a brief history of your group.

23
The management group has come together realise a long-cherished ambition to launch a local television service for
Liverpool.
Initial plans to run a satellite-based service attracted the promise of investment from the Merseyside Special Investment
Fund early in 2008 but with the impact of the economic downturn that scheme was abandoned in 2009. In a difficult
financial climate it was decided to scale-back the plans and in November 2011, Bay TV Liverpool was launched as an IPTV
service.
Bay TV Liverpool covers stories on every aspect of Liverpool life and our website is attracting around 60,000 views per
month. Our VJs are invited to numerous events and press launches where they are often the only TV crew present.
In its IPTV format Bay TV Liverpool is constantly demonstrating that there is a significant audience for truly relevant local
content.
Chris Johnson is one of the most respected journalist entrepreneurs in the UK and has a long track record at Mercury Press
in running a newsroom as a tight ship with a highly competitive edge.
Chris Kerr is among the few people with real experience of running a broadcast TV studio in Liverpool. During his Granada
TV career, he became its Liverpool station manager.
Professor Denis Kehoe is a visionary leader in the field of IT and data solutions. He has worked extensively to combat digital
exclusion and sees a synergy with L-DTPS as an engine for development and growth.
Jack Stopforth, MBE, is the immediate past CEO of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. But his own experience embraces
the worlds of public relations, commerce and the media, giving him a unique insight that equips him to lead BTVL as its
Chairman with a combination of creativity and corporate flair.

B. Please summarise the groups broadcasting experience.

Chris Kerr: Programme Director
Chris has more than thirty years experience in television, having worked for Thames Television in London and later for
Granada which he joined in 1980. When the new Liverpool studio opened in 1986 he became a reporter with Granada
Reports and one of the team of regular newsreaders.
In 1990 he became a producer in the Factuals department, working on live shows and documentaries; in 1994 he became
Deputy Editor of Granada News and station manager of the Albert Dock news centre.
Since leaving Granada he has worked on setting up a number of community television services.
A former Director of the Bluecoat Arts Centre, he has wide experience of Liverpools cultural industries, having sat on the
boards of, among others, Tate Gallery, Liverpool Playhouse, the Arts Council Regional Committee and Brouhaha
International.
He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Granada Foundation.

Liam Fogarty, Presenter/consultant
Journalist, Broadcaster and Lecturer
Liam spent more than 20 years as a BBC journalist.

24
After working at BBC Radio Merseyside as a reporter, producer and News Editor, he spent 3 years in London as Local
Government Correspondent for BBC Radio News, reporting for Today, The World at One, PM and other flagship news and
current affairs programmes.
Returning to the North West he worked as a political reporter and producer, as well as the BBC's Liverpool-based TV
reporter between 1999-2001. He also edited regional programmes BBC North West Tonight and the Politics Show, and
masterminded coverage of local, National and European elections.
He spent 18 months acting as Managing Editor of BBC Radio Merseyside.
He resigned from the BBC in 2006 to lead the campaign for Liverpool to have a directly-elected Mayor.

C. Please summarise the relevant experience of the group or its members, in relevant non-broadcast
areas (such as print journalism, third sector, local business, sales and marketing, fundraising, training or
education).
Chris Johnson: Chief Executive
Chris is Managing Director of Mercury Press and Media (www.mercurypress.co.uk), part of an informal network of
independent of freelance press agencies in the UK.
He has broad media experience, having worked in newspapers, press agencies and public relations on Merseyside since
1969. He began his career in weekly newspapers, as a photographer and later switched to reporting.
Chris joined Mercury Press Agency in 1976, and spent twenty years leading its day-to-day operations as its News Editor and
in his role as a director of the company.
Throughout this period Chris has implemented recruitment programmes, working closely with North West universities,
training a stream of talented journalists.
He has played a leading role in the foundation and success of the National Association of Press Agencies, NAPA, the trade
association of freelance press agencies in the UK. (www.napa.org.uk) He is currently a member of the NAPA Executive.

D. Please summarise the broadcasting experience of key indi viduals in the applicant group (onl y if not
already described above).
Pete Price
Media personality and broadcaster
Over thirty years experience as presenter with BBC Radio One, BBC Radio Merseyside and Radio City.

Simon Ellis-Jones
Trained as a Journalist with Mercury Press.
Head of Sport Channel One Liverpool 1998-2000
Sport producer/reporter ITN 2000-2005
Freelance Sky/ITN 2005-2008
Sky News Sports Producer: 2008-2010
BBC Sport producer: 2010 to date.

Simon Malia
Career began on Tyneside with Shields Gazette, then joined agencies in Liverpool, Nottingham and Birmingham. Worked
on national titles from the Sun to the Sunday Times.
Joined Granada TV, becoming News Editor and producer of news magazine, Granada Reports.
Joined BBC, producing documentaries and news output.
Executive Producer at MUTV, winning RTS award.
Currently Media Consultant, providing journalistic / production support, Media Training and PR advice.

Jeff Pickett,
Owner/Managing Editor at Independent Sports News Television

25
After working as a freelance newspaper journalist Jeff re-trained as a tv director/producer and worked on exposes for
Channel Four and Five.
He also worked at ITV's flagship current affairs programme Tonight for 18 months before setting up Niche Productions
Ltd.
Niche worked within the specialist soccer video production field and led to the launch of Independent Sports News
Television Ltd to deal with the increasing demands for Premier League and UEFA Champions and Europa League content
from international broadcasters, online and mobile clients.
ISN TV currently provides content across Europe, South America, Middle East, Asia and recently signed an Africa-wide deal
to exclusively supply sports news content to 128 broadcasters across the continent.

E. Please provide details of any third party invol vement in the group (e.g. consultants or other bodies
which might be making a contribution to the running of the station but are not formall y part of the
applicant body). (Note: Please provide a letter from any such third parties confirming their involvement
as specified.)

26
Mercury Press is one of the longest-established media companies in the Liverpool City Region, tracing its origins back to
1961 when it was formed by Terry Smith who went on to launch Radio City and to become Chairman of EMAP Radio.
Mercury Press will provide to BTVL, as a partner, the constant flow of news and information which it delivers to national
newspapers and magazines, international syndication partners, and national, regional and local broadcasters.
DaDaFest will contribute their expertise and contacts in programmes we make with, for and about disabled people. We are
also examining a collaboration on a media training scheme for disabled people.
ISN TV will provide access to press conferences at Premier League matches, coverage of the Everton and Liverpool FC
youth development schemes and access to ISN TVs camera crews.
We have engaged the services of Lynda Roughley to supply court reports from Liverpool Crown Court
Letters attached.

3

27
F. If you have or are expecting to enter into any significant agreements with any third parties, you should
provide the following details:
5

(a) For agreements already in place, a copy of the agreement together with a short summary of its key
terms, together with a description of the third parties;
(b) For proposed agreements, a description of the third parties, the proposed agreement, including what
stage discussions/negotiations are at, together with any heads of terms that have already been agreed.

We have signed a Collaboration Agreement with AIMES Grid Services, a Liverpool University CIC, under which they will:
supply data centre services;
facilitate a project to achieve true cross-platform delivery of BTVL's prime programme output, both in VoD format
and on a live streaming basis;
work towards the development of a metrics system for measurement of the BTVL audience.

We have signed a MoU with Edge Hill University about the use of their studio, access to academic research and
collaborative programmes with their staff and students.

We have an understanding with Hurricane Films,) one of Liverpools leading independent companies, that we will
commission local features from them and explore the possibilities of co-production
Hurricane Films are a multi-award winning production company based in Liverpool. As well as producing acclaimed feature
films (eg Terence Davies Of Time and The City) they work extensively with young people in the Merseyside area. Past
projects include the critically acclaimed feature film Under the Mud - collaboratively written with a group of teenage first-
time writers, mainly from South Liverpool.
We will expect to showcase films produced in the course of their many film production workshops.

We have a similar understanding with Showrunners Network, with whose staff we have worked before.
Showrunners Network Ltd is a collective of creative professionals, all of whom have been working in the field of creative
training and education for many years but have come together as a union of trainers and educators trying to deliver
something new.

Supporting evidence attached

13. Risk Guidance notes
Please describe your analysis of risks to your
business, by answering the questions below.

In considering whether an applicant has the ability to
run a local television service for the licence period, it
will be helpful for us to understand more about the
applicants analysis of possible risks to their
business.
Please detail what you consider to be the main risks to your business plan, both operational and
financial risks, and how you propose to address these risks.

5
This section may be redacted in the for publication version.

28
Answer in fewer than 500 words (and agreements may be attached):

An assessment of the risks has been performed during the compilation of this proposal in the areas of operational and
financial risk. The most significant risks and our mitigation approach are described below (please note that the likelihood
[L] and impact [I] measures of Low [L] Medium [M] High [H] stated are those anticipated before the mitigation approach is
implemented):

A downturn in the economy leading to reduced advertising revenues (Financial, L-H I-M). Although we have used
conservative figures for our expected advertising revenue, we will mitigate against a downturn by taking a pragmatic
approach to content production and acquisition, for example, by reducing the level of news broadcast to the minimum
requirement and making other changes to our schedule to reduce overheads.

Another large broadcaster or small online competitor starts up in opposition (Financial, L-M I-M). Despite the possibility of
competition, we feel our excellent content proposition, history of producing content for the local audience and unique
understanding of the demographic, helps to mitigate against competition from larger faceless organisations as well as to
provide barriers to entry against smaller start-ups. The award of a local license, of course, also provides a further barrier. 8

Loss of key personnel (Operational, L-L I-H). It is not unusual for a business to place heavy reliance on one or more key
persons and the sudden departure might render significant parts of the business partially inoperable. We will seek to avoid
this by having well-written procedural manuals on carrying out certain important tasks as well as employing well-
structured programmes of staff training to disseminate information about key business areas and operations to a wider
group of staff, thus reducing reliance on any single employee.

With regard to Financial risk management measures, we will apply standard management accountancy tools and
procedures, such as peer review and competitive analyses, changes in asset balances or red flags associated with bad debts
/ cash collection, and a dynamic monitoring / analysis of working capital requirements to help anticipate cash flow issues.

14. Character of service Guidance notes
Please provide an explanation of how the character
of the service (as set out in the Programming
Commitments) is to be maintained for the period for
which the licence would be in force.

An application for an L-DTPS licence must include a
detailed explanation of how the character of the
service, as proposed in the application, is to be
maintained for the period for which the licence would
be in force.

The character of our service is key to its survival and success. This is a television channel for Liverpool, about Liverpool and
made by Liverpool people. Central to its character are lively coverage of news, sport and entertainment and, if the station
does not delivery that, audiences will desert. There is therefore no incentive to change the character.

Regular consultation
We have set out above our intention to hold at least annual public meetings in each district to hear the audiences view on
our service and for a suggestions box. We shall aslo put in place a system for dealing with audience complaints.

Programme Advisory Board
However, more formally, we shall set up a Programme Advisory Board, answerable to the main Board, which will have
representatives from the world of arts, business, politics and the public sector as well as from community groups. It will
meet quarterly and its first task will be, in association with the main Board and our compliance procedures, to draw up a
quality charter. The charter will set out minimal standards of creative and technical quality, hours of local programming,
commissions from independent producers and the range of subject matter. Thereafter its role will be to monitor our
output and, where it sees a divergence from the charter, to alert the appropriate executives and, if necessary, the Board.

29

Ability to maintain the service financial information
6

15. Financial information: funding and projections - redacted

Contact information and declaration
You must advise Ofcom of any changes to contact details.
16. Public contact details Guidance notes
Provide the name of the person who will deal with
enquiries from the press and public, and the contact
details for them.
Answer:

Ofcom will publish licence applications and, from
time to time, publish statements which may include
public contact details, on its website. A point of
contact is required for these.
Name: Chris Johnson
Phone number:

0151 709 6707
Email address:

chrisjohnson@baytvliverpool.com
Website:

www.baytvliverpool.com
Postal address:

Suite 302, QD Business Centre, Norfolk Street, Liverpool
L1 0BG

17. Contact details for Ofcom
7
- redacted

6
7

30
18. Concluding declaration
APPLICANTS, DIRECTORS AND OWNERS OTHER INTERESTS
1. In relation to the applicant and any bodies and/or individuals whose details are given in this application,
please state whether the applicant, any body or individual is (and if so identify that body or individual)
involved in any of the activities set out in the table below, and the extent of the involvement or interest.
For these purposes, the applicant includes associates of the applicant (i.e. directors and their associates
and other group companies). If none of the following categories in this section apply, this must be clearly
indicated by writing none in any appropriate box.
Activity/invol vement By the applicant
and/or a shareholder
or member
By a director

a) Local authorities None None
b) Bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly of a
political nature, or which are affiliated to such a
body
None None
c) Bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly of a
religious nature
None None
d) An individual who is an officer of a body falling
within (c) above
None None
e) A body corporate which is an associate (as
defined in paragraphs 1(1) and 1(1a) of Part I of
Schedule 2 to the Broadcasting Act 1990) or a
body falling within (b) or (c) above)
None None
f) An advertising agency or an associate of an
advertising agency
None None
g) Other broadcasting interests (including radio,
television, satellite and cable broadcasting and
allied activities).
None None

31
Other matters
3. In pursuance of its duties under Section 3(3) of the Broadcasting Act 1996 (as amended), Ofcom requires
that the applicant should notify Ofcom of any matters which might influence Ofcoms judgement as to
whether:
(i) the applicant;
(ii) any director of the applicant;
(iii) any individual, or any director of a company, who will have an interest of 5 per cent or more in the
applicant;
may not be considered a 'fit and proper person' to participate in a broadcasting licence.
Answer:
None.
Do you confirm, to the best of your knowledge and belief, that:
4. The applicant is not a disqualified person in relation to the licence by virtue of the provisions of section
143 (5) of the Broadcasting Act 1996 (relating to political objects);
5. The applicant is not otherwise a disqualified person in relation to the licence by virtue of Part II of
Schedule 2 to the Broadcasting Act 1990 or any other rule prohibiting its holding the licence;
6. No director, member or other person involved directly or indirectly in the management of the applicant
group is the subject of a disqualification order as defined by section 145 (1) of the Broadcasting Act
1996; and
7. Any matters which might influence Ofcom's judgement as to whether the directors or members of the
applicant group are fit and proper persons to participate in a licence have been made to Ofcom.
Applicants should note that Ofcom reserves the right to revoke a licence if at any time any material
statement made is found to be false and to have been made by the applicant or any member or officer
thereof knowing it to be false, and that in the circumstances of section 144 of the Broadcasting Act 1996,
the provision of false information or the withholding of relevant information with the intention of
misleading Ofcom could incur a criminal conviction and a disqualification from the holding of a licence.
Please tick this box to confirm that the applicant agrees with the above statements.
Please tick the boxes below to confirm these are included as part of this application.
Memorandum & Articles of Association (of the entity to be licensed)
Certificate of Incorporation (of the entity to be licensed) or founding documents
Application Payment (UK 2,500) this is non-refundable
Financial forecasts
Please tick the boxes below to indicate which additional documentation is included as part of this application. We
are not willing to accept additional information with this application, other than that set out below:
Third-party agreements/heads of terms
Indicative schedule

32
I hereby appl y to Ofcom for the grant of an L-DTPS licence and declare that the information given in this
application and any additional documentation is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, correct.

Christopher Johnson. (Name of person)

Chief Executive. (Title or position in the applicant group)

13 August 2012. (Date)

Please return this form and any additional electronic information to: local.tv@ofcom.org.uk
In usual circumstances we will only accept applications and supporting documents by email. Please contact the
Local TV Licensing team if you are unable for any reason to submit electronic copies.
If you need to send anything in hard copy, please send it to:
Local Television Licensing Team
Ofcom
Riverside House
2A Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA
Please make sure you keep a copy of anything you send, for your records.

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Local Digital Television Programme Service (L-DTPS) Licence Application Form

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