From BBC Two to TV-am, getting a new television station on air and establishing it has never been easy. But on 31 March London Live, the biggest channel in former Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s new wave of local-TV services, arrived in one piece.

And so was born the capital’s first bespoke, multi-platform network channel aimed at the under-35s. 

SIt’s a crazy project. Who would launch a TV channel in eight months? I wouldn’t have imagined doing that and I can’t believe we have all done it,T said Launch Programme Director Jane Mote.

She added: It’s an incredible TV station, it looks good, sounds good and it’s achieved the objective of opening up a platform for Londoners.T

Mote and her colleagues – Bryn Balcombe, Technology Director, Jonathan Boseley, Head of Programming, Vikki Cook, Head of News and Current Affairs, and presenter Gavin Ramjaun – had gamely agreed to discuss the birth of London Live at an RTS event, SLondon Live – the first monthT. 

In the front row, their boss, Andrew Mullins, CEO of London Live, listened attentively and was at hand to argue his side of the case about the station’s ratings. 

The new kid on the block had deliberately avoided taking the obvious path of giving audiences a celebrity-­led service.

SWe could have gone the easy route – slammed a few celebrities in, got some quick wins, made some bucks and gone home,T stressed Mote.

The presenting team is young and diverse – and are given a lot of opportunities to be hands-on and work across a variety of shows. 

Ramjaun, whose career includes stints at both ITV and the BBC, said he had fronted all of the channel’s live shows apart from the lunchtime show.

From having done television such as Daybreak and This Morning, I’ve done the traditional routes…,T he said. SObviously, it has to be interesting and relevant to Londoners, but the thing that’s struck me most about this channel is that, if you have an idea, you can get it on air.

SI don’t just sit there and read an Autocue… 

SWe write our own scripts and produce our own content.T

Mote said that the desire to break new ground was reflected in how London Live was distributed, in its content and in its technological innovation. She said London Live wanted a brand proposition that was Smodern, celebratory, urban and knowingT

Is it an advantage having the backing of a big newspaper group (London Live is owned by the publishers of The Independent and Evening Standard, Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev), asked the evening’s chair, journalist Kate Bulkley.

STo start with, it wasn’t very helpful at all. There were hundreds of people working in the company who all thought they knew about television, who wanted to spend time telling me, then the only TV employee, what should be done…

SObviously, to hit timetables like that we had to be laser-focused, but what’s been amazing about working with the London Evening Standard and Independent journalists is the amount of quality news and information and creativity in the building...

SWe couldn’t have done it without that newspaper base. It’s turned out to be a complete blessing.T

There are advantages also to be had via cross-promotion, although London Live’s demographic is unlikely to have many committed newspaper readers.

They are certainly big users of social networks, and wouldn’t be seen dead on the streets of Hackney or Hammersmith without their mobile devices.

Part of London Live’s pitch involves making maximum use of the connected generation’s tendency to watch TV in non-traditional ways. 

SWe’re not just interested in TV viewers. We’re interested in viewers of our content,T said Boseley. SWe want people to watch us on the move and on any platform they want to watch us on...

SI don’t want to feel like a community channel. I don’t want dark, dingy, grimy duty news. That said, I don’t want to say we will not tell a story because it is in a slightly depressing category.T

SWe absolutely know that people are streaming us and watching us on their devices. That will grow and grow.T

Ultimately, though, it is the appeal of London Live’s content, regardless of the distribution platform, that will determine its success or otherwise.

Much of the schedule is dedicated to news and current affairs. Cook stressed that the channel aims to bring a fresh take on the capital and avoid old staples such as the habit of filming vox pops in Chiswick High Road. 

Instead, said Cook, she was looking for a Sslight cheekiness, a slight knowingnessT. Not for nothing is the early-­evening magazine show called Not the One Show.

SIf you talk about news for a young demographic, a lot of people think you are going to be gimmicky,T she said. SIt was something I was very clear about with Andy, our CEO: it had to be credible journalism, otherwise I didn’t want to launch it.T 

Bulkley said that both The Independent and Evening Standard’s journalism are known for their campaigning edge. Would this be reflected in London Live?

SIt is definitely a different voice,T Cook replied. SIt’s important to say that I do want this positive take on things. That is not to say I want Martyn Lewis-­style all good news…

SI don’t want to feel like a community channel. I don’t want dark, dingy, grimy duty news. That said, I don’t want to say we will not tell a story because it is in a slightly depressing category.T

How was she approaching the challenge of covering such a huge and ­heterogeneous area as London? 

SWe had lots of conversations about this when we started… It can’t just be in High Street Kensington or Shoreditch…

SNews is driven by deadlines, so it’s practicality versus ambition. Because I am trying to steer us away from duty news it will come down to planning and where we can reach stories. 

SIt’s difficult. There’s no use pretending it isn’t.T

The panel discussed the issues facing London Live in front of a packed room (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

As for London Live’s non-news and current affairs shows, Boseley is relying on a mix of what he claims are cutting-­edge programmes featuring fresh TV talent and tried-and-tested acquisitions such as Peep Show, Smack the Pony and Misfits.

He admitted that commissioning shows on such tight budgets (the peak-time tariff is £20,000 an hour) had led 

 initially to scepticism from producers. Some of these doubts evaporated when it became clear that London Live was committed to doing something different. SThe sort of production companies we’re working with want to play in this space because technology is changing the way you make programmes,T he said.

A recent show, Drag Queens of London, had provoked a big response on Twitter and was a good example of how the station Scan create cutting-edge mainstream TV on our tariffs,T noted the head of programming.

YouTube will probably be a good recruiting ground for would-be London Live stars, but the station’s hope is that, eventually, unknown talent could work, too. 

SThis is a hungry channel,T said Boseley. SThis is a big Freeview channel. It is not on air for [just] two hours a night.T

Since arriving last July, Boseley said he had commissioned 40 programmes. High-profile producers such as Fresh One are on board (the company makes Food Junkies for London Live) and original comedy is also part of the mix. 

SWe’re a broad, mainstream entertainment channel. We want the advertisers to spend with us, so we have to generate ratings. That’s crucial. We’re a commercial company and we’re commercially minded.T

There has been press comment about London Live’s low ratings. But Mullins insisted the figures needed to be looked at in context.

SIt’s phase one,T he said. SWe haven’t really started to do it with any real skill or capability yet… Who the hell cares about Barb ratings when you’ve got millions and millions of people picking up your news and current affairs across the internet, within the UK and worldwide. That’s the ambition.T

He claimed that 20% of video viewing on The Independent’s website is by users watching London Live’s content.

The Independent website has 39 million unique browsers, according to Mullins.

He claimed that Barb was under-­estimating the size of London Live’s audience by 50%.

The station’s breakfast show, Wake Up London, has averaged only 2,400 viewers, according to Barb.

But Mote claimed that, on average, 150,000 Londoners were tuning in to London Live daily.

She added: SIn the first month, according to the same Barb figures that other people are quoting, we’ve had 2 million Londoners watching us. That is more than one in five Londoners.T

It is, of course, early days. London Live sounds genuinely committed to creating a channel that young Londoners can identify with and watch, use and interact with in a way that is different to traditional linear networks.

Whether this can be translated into a successful business, only time will tell. 

‘London Live – the first month’, was a joint RTS London Centre and RTS Early Evening Event held at ITV’s London Studios on 30 April. The producers were Terry Marsh and Martin Stott, Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at Channel 5.

 

How London Live uses new technologies 

Bryn Balcombe: ‘It’s a massive advantage to start with a blank sheet of paper…

‘I wanted to make sure that the content we produce that comes out of news and current affairs or any programme we do in our studio matches the online quality you see.

‘It should be a post-produced quality. If you clip anything up for the studio and put it online, it will stand up as if it was shot for post.

‘That’s why we innovated around DSLR camera technology and formed a long-term partnership with Nikon.

‘We also innovated around robotics. We’re the first in the world to do industrial robotics live in the studio all the time.

‘Our primary camera is an industrial robot. The type of thing you can build a car with...’

Why London Live backs diversity

Vikki Cook: ‘I feel passionately about this. It’s one thing I will not do – tick boxes… If a person is talented, I don’t care what their colour, age, sexuality or creed is.

‘I’ve never been able to choose a team from scratch (there were 5,000 applicants for 30 jobs). This time I could… and it was literally the people who came in and sat in front of me.

‘If you’ve got a very diverse team, which we have, actually it just seeds itself...

‘I was at Sky for 11 years. Brilliant company to work for but, in terms of attracting talent and staff, it seemed to come from quite a small pool compared with the luxury I had when I was recruiting here.’

Jane Mote: ‘It is really, really important to us that the channel reflects London. London is incredibly diverse…

‘Why we’ve been able to maintain such diversity in everything we do is because we’ve been very clear there are opportunities for all and that it’s not the same old people.’

Jonathan Boseley: ‘It doesn’t need to be a problem if you’re open…Anyone can approach us.

‘Look outside and see the variety of London. It’s our mentality. It’s only a problem when you’re in a closed shop. It is very easy to change.’

@333_steve