Time for a local TV news service?
I live in North Cumbria, close to the Northumberland border, and I am dismayed with national broadcasters, whether based in London or in Glasgow, cutting or mothballing vital local TV news services.
Where I live, ITV plc merged ITV Border with ITV Tyne Tees back in 2009, leading to a loss of local news coverage for Cumbria and the Scottish Borders.
Cumbria now has ITV Border Lookaround back, but this only came about as a result of much uproar and political pressure on ITV plc, with MPs from the areas affected weighing in on behalf of their constituents. Even so, a good deal of the local programming that viewers in the old ITV Border region had has gone forever.
I have friends in the Orkney Isles and have visited the Shetland Isles. The latter is 400 miles from Glasgow, which brings me to the devastating decision by Ofcom to approve STV’s axing of the dedicated regional TV service for northern Scotland.
This is a far worse predicament than Cumbrians, or Dumfriesshire folk having to watch ‘local’ news about Tyneside and Teesside – over 100 miles away.
Shetland is in fact closer to western Norway than Glasgow or Edinburgh, and now the ‘local’ STV news will be about stabbings in Glasgow and drug problems in Edinburgh – and an opt-out that is likely to include a couple of stories about Aberdeen and perhaps the Cairngorms: still 250 miles distant from Shetland.
The alternative, BBC’s Reporting Scotland is Scotland-wide and would have even less news about places north of the Forth-Clyde valley.
I have read a number of articles on Shetland News, which illustrate Shetland’s ties with Norway, not Glasgow or Edinburgh.
The cultural and historical roots of Hjaltland (as it is affectionately referred to locally and by the Norwegians) are clearly Nordic. Yet to be imposed more strongly than ever by STV and the BBC will be a Glaswegian narrative full of Glaswegian concerns.
And what is not sufficiently recognised is that that is just the ‘local’ news; Shetland continues to receive continuity output that is London-centric with those wonderful gems like East Enders, I’m a Celebrity, Traitors, American Traitors, etc: as if though Shetlanders have the same cultural connections and wider links as folk in London, or Plymouth in south-west England!
A good deal has been made of the Shetland Isles having more autonomy (like the Faroe Islands) and strengthening ties with Norway in Shetland News in recent months.
I know that many readers of this newspaper will be familiar with Shetlaen, which shares a lot in common with Norwegian- with words like bairn (Norwegian is barn, for child), wir, fell, dee (deg in Norwegian, for you), haff (hav in Norwegian, for sea/ ocean): so brushing up on Norwegian in order to watch NRK’s Distriksnyheter Vestlandsrevyen, the local news for Western Norway might be no bad thing!
It is usually loaded onto the Internet about an hour after being aired live and the website link to find it is here.
There will be no news about the Shetland Isles, but in terms of topical content and geographical proximity it is got to be more relevant than 70 per cent of the news about Glasgow and Edinburgh, which would be completely irrelevant to Shetlanders.
Of course, it is not just the loss of a much-loved local news service for the North of Scotland at issue here, but the imposition by national broadcasters of mainstream programming that will be ill-suited to Shetlanders, some 750 miles north of London and 400 miles from Glasgow.
Rather than watching imported American stuff (Shetlanders do not necessarily gravitate to the USA or Australia if they have links outside of the UK), or soaps like East Enders or Neighbours, your readers might find the Norwegian murder-detective series Wisting more to their taste, or the Swedish family-adventure TV series Vi på Saltkråkan (Were on Seacrow Island).
With some understanding or Norwegian, or Swedish (which is closely related) it would be possible for Shetlanders to immerse themselves in the plots, and enjoy the series – certainly more than some of the stuff that passes for “entertainment” on the BBC or STV.
Folk living in Shetland really need their own local TV service, covering local issues pertaining to Shetland and recognising wider regional links and issues of concern for Shetland folk.
In 2026, it ought to be possible for a group of people with knowledge of TV production and transmission, and of journalism and news gathering to provide a local TV service (cabled to folk’s televisions on Shetland) or Internet based that can produce local news programming and local documentaries for the Shetland Isles.
It would be possible to set up a Community Interest Company (a C.I.C.) called Shetland TV for this very purpose. Perhaps, this news service could be instrumental in providing journalistic expertise in helping to set up such a vital public service – a local TV news that informs, and shows Shetlanders what is going on locally certainly is.
Just over 200 miles to the northwest of the Shetland Islands are the Faroe Islands, population no more than 50,000 people. The Faroe Islands have their own dedicated TV news service called Kringvarp Føroya.
The combined population of the Orkney and Shetland Isles is about the same, so if the Faroese can have their own dedicated TV news service so too can the Shetland Isles. Then local folk can – credibly – boycott both STV and the BBC for good.
For those who might be interested, I have a website in which I draw attention to deficiencies in regional TV coverage in large parts of northern Britain, and I have covered STV’s proposed (now confirmed) axing of STV North News in a recent post – and all that entails. You can find my website here.
The lack of proper TV representation for the Shetland Isles, and other places far to the north of the main UK population centres is a topic that your readers would certainly be happy to read about, and to have avenues to find alternative programming that might be more appropriate (even if it isn’t in English).
Perhaps this might be the time for Shetland News to expand into producing a dedicated TV service, which seems to grow more necessary with every passing year.
Ian Pennell
Cumbria
