Policy Context and Legal Framework

Locally - KCC sets the agenda locally through it's 'Towards 2010' document, Kent TV is covered under priority 24 which states 'Find new and innovative ways of communicating with the public, including trailing webcast TV.' KCC's powers means that Kent TV services are also covered under section 349 of the Communications Act 2003, the promoting wellbeing and community leadership role in the Local Government Act 2000 and in the Government White Paper "A New Future for Communications", which enables local authorities to provide information services via TV and radio. 

Kent TV acts as an important tool for communicating with younger people, who are an important part of Kent and but do not generally use traditional methods of communication such as printed publications. The nature of Kent TV means that KCC is reaching a wider audience, as found by Ofcom, younger people prefer to watch TV and obtain their information from the internet and that this is also true of BME Communities.

Regionally - Regionally this project would support the South East Regional Development Agency's Culture strategy which recognises that 'The richness and diversity of the region's cultural... assets are a major factor in attracting inward investment and the outstanding historic and natural heritage provides a unique resource for the tourism industry'

Nationally - The UK Government has set targets for the provision of local coverage of news, it is attempting, through a series of targets which are compulsory, to drive major broadcasters to localise its news coverage. Kent TV has been praised by the UK Prime Minister for its innovative provision of local content.  

European - The European White Paper on European Communication Policy published 2006 mentions the need to provide information as widely as possible in as many formats as possible '...including mass media to new technologies such as the internet'. The transmission of Kent TV programmes on the internet means that it is available indefinitely across the European Union and indeed the world.

Kent TV is designed to be a direct benefit to those who live in Kent, offering them an interactive information service, by allowing them to add their own content and comment on content that already exists. Kent TV welcomes suggestions and where possible attempts to include them in the working of the site. For example KentTV.mobi was designed so that Kent TV can be directly available on a mobile phone or Blackberry; this was work was undertaken at the request of our viewers.

Implementation and Management Approach

When implementing Kent TV, Kent County Council made the decision to put the project forward to tender to attract a media company to run Kent TV independently. It was decided that the channel should report to an independent board of governors and adhere to Ofcom guidelines. In order to maintain impartiality it is important that an external company with expertise in this field should be hired to run the channel.

When writing the business case for Kent TV it was decided that we would opt for a broadband channel as opposed to a digital/satellite channel that would be hosted by a company such as SKY TV. There were two overriding factors which influenced our decision, the first was accessibility; it is estimated that 98% of Kent is covered by broadband and around 72% of households have access to the internet, in addition to this Kent also has broadband readily available for people to use in both libraries and schools. We felt that broadband had a greater reach than cable or satellite and people were more likely to watch us on the internet as opposed to on TV.

The second factor was costs, hosting a broadband channel is substantially cheaper. Kent TV currently costs £600,000 a year, which includes the employment of 10 local staff, a commissioning budget to hire local production companies to make one off series and the ability to archive all material making it available on demand. The majority of the programming is made by four video journalists who have extensive knowledge of the county and are able to use this to create quality and informed programmes.

The editor is entirely responsible for the creative content and makes decisions with regards to what topics and issues should be covered by the four journalists. The editor employed by the contracted company delivering Kent TV and is therefore completely independent from the council. This enables the channel to be impartial and cover any topic they may wish. This impartiality has meant that in the past Kent TV has been able to cover stories which the council might not ordinarily have sanctioned. 

The Board of Governors to whom Kent TV reports is made up of industry experts, local businessmen, representatives from the three main political parties, and representatives from fire, police and the National Health Service. The board meets quarterly and receives updates from senior staff at Kent TV and KCC, they are also presented with any major ideas or concepts that will change the direction in which Kent TV moves forward, for example the launching of additional services such as What's On.

All videos submitted to Kent TV are vetted to ensure that they comply to Ofcom guidelines. All information that is placed on Kent TV is available indefinitely and is available to view on demand. The ICT is managed by the contracted company and mechanisms are in place to ensure that any downtime is limited and dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Currently Kent TV is funded entirely by Kent County Council, however in the future we would envisage that the service would be part funded by other authorities in Kent, including NHS, Fire and Police.

Technology solution

Prior to the launch of Kent TV, the Council investigated many different avenues which explored accessibility, dissemination and costs.

It was felt that by launching Kent TV through a satellite provider, the channel would be lost amongst many others; there was also a concern that this would limit the number of people that could access the service. When considering our options there was lots of evidence that pointed towards the future of broadband. Through careful examination of our data, it was felt that broadband would enable us to communicate with those who typically have no or limited interaction with the council. It was hoped that by attracting these groups to the site they might then access other information which they would not normally be exposed to through traditional means.

By hosting the channel on broadband internet it opened up opportunities for people to have greater interaction with the service. They would be able to become directly involved by uploading their own content, watching what they wanted when they wanted and we are able to take their suggestions and make the service more tailored to their ideas.

Since the launch Kent TV has been able to exploit the true potential of broadband and extend the services it offers to include a What's On guide, which allows the public to upload events from concerts to markets and KentTV.mobi which allows the public to access Kent TV from their mobiles and Blackberrys.

Launching Kent TV on broadband has also proved to be a cost effective way of running the service. Instead of paying large costs to a satellite provider, the money is spent on providing quality programming that can be watched on demand. Since Kent TV's launch in September 2007 many other services have since begun to exploit the capabilities of broadband including the BBC Iplayer, which allows viewers to watch BBC programmes up to 7 days after their television transmission.  

To maintain complete impartiality Kent County Council decided that Kent TV should be subject to Ofcom Guidelines. This means that all videos must be vetted to ensure that they a suitable to view prior to watershed, there must not be any political bias and the channel must maintain impartiality. It is primarily for this reason that Kent TV is delivered by an independent production company that maintains complete editorial control over content.

Impact

Kent TV uses AWStats, one of the industries leaders, to measure visits to the site. AWStats measure visits by IP address and therefore tend to underreport true visitor numbers. However this gives us a good indication as to how many visits we are receiving from the public.  

From Kent TV's launch in September 2007 to the end of April 2009, the site had received over 1.6 million visits. In addition to this, the What's On service has seen over 9400 events listed since its launch in October 2008.

Kent TV has been working in association with many Kent organisations giving them an opportunity to maximise their interaction with the service. The service has been particularly beneficial to charities and the voluntary sector as these groups traditionally have very little money and opportunities to promote their cause. As Kent TV is a free service, it represents a cost effective and efficient way in getting their message across.  

Currently Kent TV has saved Kent County Council £200,000 and is forcasted to save us an additional £1 million in the next year. The savings are a part of a wider strategy to reduce the number of paper communications and to reach a wider audience through a number of different channels including the internet.

The service has received positive feedback from viewers and those who have used Kent TV as a promotional tool. The attached appendix includes some of the emails received from the general public.

By having a dedicated Kent broadband channel, we have ensured that Kent has a world wide accessible platform to showcase the county and its talents. Kent TV has attracted attention from around the world, with Kent County Council being invited to speak at conferences in Barcelona, Canada and Ireland.

The service as well as being a community channel also acts as a marketing tool for both tourism and business. Both Visit Kent and Locate in Kent have used the channel to highlight to both potential visitors and businesses that are considering locating to the county, what Kent has to offer. Kent TV has produced content which has since been used on tourism channels, at various conferences throughout the UK and is also aired on the ferry service run by Norfolkline.

Kent TV is a sustainable in the long term, through good production values and by attracting viewers through providing good programming and opportunities to showcase their own work and talents Kent TV will continue to thrive. The service is continually evolving to deliver the needs of its viewers and to keep up with the changing trends of providing an internet TV station. Kent TV has to date, through innovation and observing trends, provided a service that is both up to date and cost effective.

Kent TV is also environmentally friendly, as it has encouraged a reduction in the number of paper communications the council produces and in the future through the delivery of E-learning.

Track record of sharing

Kent TV was the first local Government funded broadband channel and as such it has invited attention from across the world. Kent County Council has on numerous occasions been invited to speak about our innovation. Interest has been expressed by other local Government authorities to run similar channels. Currently we are exploring the possibility of franchising Kent TV offering the opportunity to other councils to have a similar service.

Since the launch of Kent TV there have been other broadband channels that have launched or are due to launch. The NHS in the West Midlands is currently tendering for a similar service focusing on health issues. Kent TV is in talks at the moment with the local NHS provider to explore if we can offer this service to them directly.

Kent TV has also been able to supply footage to the BBC both locally and nationally. In 2008, Kent TV journalists covered the action that took place at the Climate Camps outside of Kingsnorth Power Station; this exclusive footage was then used by the BBC. Additionally Kent TV in association with Visit Kent, negotiated to supply Norfolkline (ferry service) with a DVD of Kent attractions to showcase the county's attractions on board the ferries.

The possibilities for sharing Kent TV are endless, with the dawn of the 2012 Olympics; Kent TV hopes to play a major part in providing content to the local giant screen which will show local programming and content. This will again provide opportunities to showcase Kent's talents and beauty spots.

There are plans currently in progress to extend Kent TV's service further by offering an online training facility. Currently the channel is talking to both clients within Kent County Council and outside to provide an E-learning facility. The service would be password protected and enable learners to log on to their relevant area and watch training videos centred on their course. The system will be able to track the progress of learners giving the course providers reassurance that their pupils are engaging with the content prior to their lessons, whether these be in the classroom or online.  

We are currently liaising with a cable channel in West Flanders with a view to submitting an interreg bid in December of this year. The project will involve sharing best practices between the two channels, giving journalists from each country the opportunity to work with one another to produce joint programmes.

Lessons learnt

In the same way in which we do not leave leaflets for people to find in our council office we have learnt to embed videos on other relevant sites to widen Kent TV's reach and essentially become a digital distribution hub. For example, Kent TV made a feature on the Kent Wildlife Trust; this was then placed on their website and also on other wildlife websites that had a similar interest. This has proved to be an effective strategy for the channel and has resulted in higher visits.

Opportunities for people to engage with Kent TV have proven to be very successful. We have run two competitions with the aim of engaging young people in Kent and give them a platform with which to showcase their creativity. Our battle of the bands competition attracted attention across the web and the county. Over 80 bands uploaded their own music videos in a bid to win the prize and the channel received 12,000 registrations online to take part or vote online. The competition worked well as an opportunity to showcase local talent but also raised Kent TV's profile with a generation that is notoriously difficult to engage with in Local Government terms.

Through engagement with the community and with our viewers we have also been able to expand the service further to incorporate their ideas. We have worked on the website to make the service easier to navigate making it possible to find what you are looking for in one click. We have further improved accessibility by making Kent TV available on mobile phones.

We have learnt to market Kent TV in new and innovative ways, including through website optimisation, ensuring that our videos can be found by through Google searches and by using social networking sites such as Facebook and blogs like Twitter. This has enabled us to update our audiences on our progress and get them more involved.

As well as marketing on social networking sites, Kent TV also actively looks to engage with people on other video sharing sites. We have set up Kent TV channels on YouTube, Daily Motion, Metacafe, Yahoo, Veoh, and MySpace. We believe although it is important for Kent TV to have a serious home on the web, to help build a sense of purpose and pride, it is also important to engage with people on platforms they are already using. In other words, we want Kent TV to be a proactive digital distribution hub, as well as a standalone 'destination' website.