[CMA] Thistle TV closes

[Bill Best]

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From: "Bob Dixon - Revival Radio" <bob[at]revivalradio[dot]org[dot]uk>
Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 02:52:35 +0100

Sunday Herald - 29 May 2005
Thistle TV signals end
By Steven Vass

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*Scotland’s last *remaining local TV channel has stopped broadcasting
due to signal problems which were costing £20,000 to £30,000 a month.

Lanarkshire’s Thistle TV has told regulator Ofcom that its analogue
signal is too weak to justify being on air. It has served the area from
noon to 9pm each day since 2003, and had developed a reputation as a
training ground for upcoming broadcasters.

Thistle’s licence was one of nine local licences awarded in Scotland in
the early 1990s. The only other two to launch were Edinburgh TV and
Dundee’s Channel 6, both of which were forced to close earlier in the
decade.

Thistle TV itself replaced Lanarkshire TV, which folded in 2001. Thistle
chairman Thomas Yates insisted the station had not closed for financial
reasons, but said up to eight staff had been released. The station has
left its studio near Motherwell.

“We were getting too many complaints from people saying there were
programmes they wanted to watch but the signal wasn’t good enough,” he
said.

“Advertisers were saying: ‘You haven’t got viewers, so why should we
advertise with you?’”

He said Ofcom was investigating alternatives, and that Thistle planned
to build a new studio in the same area.

Ofcom is conducting a UK-wide review of local television and is due to
publish a consultation document.

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