Local TV: Let’s Make It In Leeds

Local TV: Let’s Make It In Leeds

By Mark O’Brien …

A politicised slanging match over the closure of a hospital unit. A much-anticipated ribbon-cutting on a new shopping centre. And a Katie Price wannabe and her boob job paid for by the NHS.

Three of the biggest stories to have come out of Leeds and gone on to make national news headlines in the last three weeks. Yet while we may have had a wander through Trinity Leeds to see what all the hype is about, and though many of us have family and friends whose lives have been saved by children’s heart surgeons at the LGI, there are countless more stories to be told in this city every day.

Over the coming months, a new television channel is set to launch here in Leeds that places these stories at the heart of its work. Made in Leeds is the culmination of nearly two years’ effort to build a new kind of local media outlet. I’m proud to have been involved in developing Made in Leeds from its infancy, when it existed only as a handful of people chatting about the idea of local television in a studio in Chapeltown.

We submitted our bid to Ofcom last summer after building partnerships with local organisations which are already doing great things across the city and developing programming ideas that will strike a chord with all Leeds folk – whether they go to Scarbrough Taps and Elland Road or Whitelocks and the City Varieties on a Saturday evening. In February, after months of waiting and wondering, Ofcom awarded our team the licence for the Leeds area.
We are on course to go live in November. We will hire full-time staff later in the summer months – multi-skilled journalists, producers, technical crew, sales reps; all smart, energetic, passionate people whose job description will demand them to live and breathe (and, time permitting, eat and sleep) local television for Leeds.

You may have already seen us talking about the city and chatting with our followers on Facebook and on Twitter. The day the licence announcement was made, we spoke on BBC Radio Leeds and 96.3 Radio Aire; the local press and the blogosphere covered our plans too. Later in February we went to Leeds Trinity University’s Journalism Week to talk and take questions about the station and what the city can expect. In the coming weeks even more is in the diary, including sitting on the panel to talk about television in the region with the Royal Television Society (Yorkshire) on April 30th.

We’ve met council figures, broadcasting veterans, experienced local journalists, as well as people who are establishing new local channels in other cities. We’ll be building relationships with local public service authorities, community group leaders, people who work hard marketing Leeds and its talent and potential all over the world – so that whether there’s a charity football tournament at Potternewton Park or a power cut at Leeds City station, Made in Leeds is the first number to ring.

The work will begin in earnest later in the year: when we aim to launch a raft of programmes covering arts and culture, sports, cookery, property and more.

Before then we are continuing to build programme-making partnerships across the city to make local television a success for everyone. Anyone who has an idea for a great show that could engage the city and reflect the lives of its people, and who can help us make it happen, we want to hear from you.
We’re already working with filmmakers, hyperlocal news outlets, and passionate people who love what they do and want to be a part of Made in Leeds. We will be looking to produce our news and our core programmes in-house at the Leeds Media & Broadcasting Centre just off Chapeltown Road. But for other programmes, we want to work with content partners in the wider creative community.

In the weeks ahead we’ll be holding a content summit, inviting production companies based in the region to come and talk about how we can work together in making content that both engages our local viewers whilst resonating with a potentially global audience.

Our flagship programmes will tell the stories of ordinary people from our area who do extraordinary things. Like Hope&Social, “Yorkshire’s E Street Band” who recently released their album of music made up of the happy memories of Leeds folk recorded as part of an interactive project with local artists. Like Qari Asim, the imam at Hyde Park’s Makkah Masjid mosque who on Good Friday brought Jews and Christians into his institution for an inter-faith celebration. Like Joe Dawson, a Leeds lad who rowed on the Thames on Oxford’s reserve vessel in the Boat Race this month, and who trained as a keen young rower at Roundhay Park.

We want you to come on board and help make local television a success for the city, whether it’s for the young poets and musicians whose lives could be transformed by connecting with an audience that appreciates their gift, or for ordinary people who pay their council tax and want to know their money is being spent on improving their quality of life.

Made in Leeds will be a true “channel”, the conduit through which Leeds people and Leeds voices are broadcast to the widest possible audience. In our schedule, we want TV programmes that will strike a chord with the 18-year old Tiger Tiger goer through to the 80-year old Tetley’s Tea drinker – and everyone in between.

So until launch day arrives later this year, let’s work together to make local television a triumph for our city. If you have a great idea and want to be involved, get in touch – send a message to me at [email protected]. And you can pop into our studios in Chapeltown and meet the station head Isi Abebe – drop him a line on 0113 200 7007 and email [email protected]

And of course come join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/madeinleedstv and on Twitter @madeinleeds.