Although I will be concentrating on local radio I couldn't help but notice that westcountry is now showing highlights of Division One rugby via its website. For those who are not into rugby that is the second highest league in the country and includes the Cornish Pirates, Plymouth Albion, Launceston and Exeter.
Despite the huge interest in the region for the above sides the league gets very little coverage on the local news and a petition was recently sent to the BBC to give it more coverage on Spotlight. The league overall does not get a great deal of television in any part of the country and I can't help thinking that Westcountry are on to something here.
By putting highlights on their website they have not just pleased local people in their region, but are also likely to gain web visitors from supporters of other clubs throughout the country.
Westcountry and Spotlight compete for a small audience and to thrive they need to look at the bigger audience picture. By doing something which is new not just to this region but across the country Westcountry have taken a step forward in an ever increasing industry.
Website. www.itvlocal.com/westcountry
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The idea that internet television could really engage in the battle for audiences is an interesting one, but it can also be seen to better represent the audience.
As well as including mainstream sports such as rugby, the internet platform could be used to braoden general sports content and dedicate space for sports which are rarely highlighted.
In recent weeks, young diver, Tom Daley, has received extraordinary amounts of television coverage on local news, but it has taken him selection for the world series, olympic trials and winning the national diving championships all at the age of 13 before getting coverage.
This seems unfair considering that local derbys held within mainstream sports will always get coverage and at a much lower level than world championships.
Using the internet could thus soften the antagonism felt by those who feel their sport is unfarily neglected by local news.
But in the battle for audiences it utimately offers a more superior representation of the community that local television strives to serve.
In hoping to win over more audiences and offer the best service possible it seems that other media companies will have to emulate what Westcountry have begun to do.
Having seen the amount of extras on the ITV and BBC local websites, I do wonder why the channels don't make more mention of them in their programmes?
All it would take would be to show a super with the web address over the relevant report, if not a super and a mention by the presenter that there was so much more available online.
Speaking of which, radio does seem to me to exploit their supporting web content a lot more than TV. The Beeb is very strong on this, with presenters directing listeners to BBC Online for all sorts of games, feedback pages, and in the case of a few stations like Radio 1 video footage etc etc.
It might be good to address this if/when we get our interviews with the local news people - why radio exploits the web so much more overtly than TV does.
Maybe it's because you can listen to the radio whilst on the net, so directing people to radio websites won't lose them any listeners? Whereas you can't really watch TV and be online at the same time...
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