Will Jeremy Hunt's local TV work in London? The smaller the better

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/sep/02/jeremy-hunt-local-tv-london-smaller-better

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Jeremy Hunt's big idea is local TV; and, to be fair, he's making dogged progress, with 57 franchise bids in 21 towns and cities for Ofcom to consider now. Yet it's London, inevitably, that looks like a plum juicy enough to get the Lebedevs and groups such as Archant, Trinity Mirror and Tindle interested. Can you take the journalists you employ on district papers or the<em> Evening Standard</em> and turn them into TV reporters too? If you can, you may just make money.

But remember the harsh truth about London: that it's a collection of towns and villages, not a single city, where news is concerned. Croydon (population 340,000) isn't much interested in what happens in Southwark (288,000), let alone Hammersmith and Fulham (182,000). That's why wise publishers in the Tindle mould see hyperlocal as the target of choice. But all-London TV, doing the all-London things the BBC and ITV do already? Ah! That's where plums turn a tad tart.