Not Channel 6 - a little local knowlege.

"What we’re trying to do is create a network of local TV stations that are financially independent of each other" - Jeremy Hunt today, with his latest thinking about how best to create "a new to create an environment for a whole new sector that we haven’t had in this country before".

This is a realistic change from the Channel 6 plan - a network spine with local affiliates opting in to contribute a few hours a day of local content. Hunt's new version, which takes IPTV very seriously, looks to the future. Which is just as well, since the past is littered with failed efforts to create a local network.

It's not often recalled, but the original proposal for Channel 5 was a plan based on City TV Toronto. It was stopped in its tracks by the regulator - it was the kind of thing the ITC liked to do in the Nineties. Then there was the attempt to corale a network of local analogue licences into the Local Broadcasting Group. The regulator didn't like that either, and LBG's ambitious plans collapsed. And now the most recent flurry of interest in a national/local network, prompted by Hunt's advocacy of city stations, then a financiers report on how to make them viable, and finally some smart spin by Channel 6.

As with every other initiative, there has been a significant behind the scenes lobby against the notion of a commercial network which offered local programming. Most national broadcasters believe it won't work, and so consequently, the Government is changing its priorities away from national, back to local.

Regulatory policy for local television is like a pendulum, swinging between national and local. It never entirely settles, and nothing is ever entirely settled, which means very little actually ever happens.

Broadcasting from the North...

Comments from Mark Thompson about the possibility of moving a BBC channel to MediacityUK carry real weight. When you look at the pictures that have been released for the new development, and reflect on the scale of what the BBC is doing there, it begins to look increasingly likely that adding a channel is on the cards. Mediacity is becoming the broadcasting capital of the North, and arguments against shifting a channel there look increasingly thin.

What would be the best channel to move? By a process of elimination it usually comes to down to one of the two digital channels - 3 or 4. But if you were going to add substantially to what is already going into Mediacity - Childrens, Sport, FiveLive and so on - the channel that would make the biggest difference would be BBC2. It has commissioning weight of numbers that would redirect the creative energies of the in-house and independent production companies that supply it. It would also mean it could escape from the temptation to follow a metropolitan media agenda and re-think its relationship with viewers outside London. That's a big undetaking to embark on, but one that the BBC knows is worth pursuing.

However, whatever the decision on a channel, one programme redeployment has already been announced which will do a great deal to bring Mediacity to the attention of the public - the arrival of Breakfast which moves in next year. Not since the days of This Morning in Liverpool has there been a daily window on the North - and that is exactly what Breakfast represents. No doubt it is a programming challenge, but more importantly it will be a huge step towards the BBC finding fresh ways to engage with audiences. If BBC2 were to be added to the mix, that would be a really fresh perspective on the BBC.