Little White Dot

In Memoriam
Kent TV
A brave and bold innovation

So farewell
Then, Kent TV.

'The new internet channel for everyone living and working in Kent'
That was your
catchphrase.

I never watched.
Nor did
Anyone else.

Your boss
Bob Geldof
Said Margate
Was ugly.

My former friend
Bignews Tony
Said you were
Shit.

You sent him
A nasty letter.

E. C. Richard (29)

KCC Turns Off Kent TV

Kent County Council have hit the off button on their controversial internet TV service Kent TV.

Kent TV launched in 2007 for an initial investment of £1.4m and had annual running costs of £600,000. KCC's ruddy-faced Tory leader Paul Carter said the channel was no longer a priority in 'different and difficult economic times', adding 'Kent TV has proved itself to be a brave and bold innovation and we have learned a great deal from it. It has provided a source of practical, useful information for residents'.

The channel was run for KCC by Sir Bob Geldof's company Ten Alps, who will no doubt be, er, sad to be pushed away from their previously solid grasp on the public tit. Still, look on the bright side. The experience they've gained running this sorry soap at our £2m+ expense has no doubt done them no harm in their bid to run ITV's north east regional news, or their recent award of a two year contract to run a, um, internet TV channel for the North East Development Agency!

Click here to read about Kent TV on BBC News website
Click here to read about Ten Alps and the north east

One In The Eye For KCC

Cripes! I see my old chum Lord Gnome has published a piece about Kent TV's rather ham-fisted attempts at silencing Tony Flaig of Bignews Margate fame! The article, in the 'Rotten Boroughs' section of this week's Private Eye, begins:

FOCKING KENT

KENT county council’s bold experiment in being the first local authority to run its own internet TV station has not been universally welcomed in the Garden of England. Or universally watched, for that matter.

One man of Kent who thought he had a democratic right to criticise the use to which his council tax was put got a shock when he did so. Bob Geldof’s production company Ten Alps, which makes Kent TV, threatened him with m’learned friends for having the temerity to say he didn’t think it was up to much.

Margate blogger Tony Flaig had been a regular critic of KTV. Not only did he describe the £1.6m spent on the channel - launched in September 2007 by Nigel Dacre, brother of the Daily Mail’s Paul - as 'Kent’s most contentious waste of money' but he also claimed that it devoted too much time to interviews with members of the ruling Tory party.

Although Mr Flaig wasn’t glued to KTV, they were paying close attention to his blog. He received a pompous letter from Jo Phillips, 'director of communications' for Ten Alps, claiming he had made 'inappropriate, unlawful and damaging defamatory allegations about Kent TV and the people who work there'. Ms Phillips, who has since left the company, concluded: 'Please therefore ensure that your blog does not publish any further defamatory statements about Kent TV. I trust you will not do so, but if you do, you should note that Ten Alps reserves the right, if appropriate to protect the reputations of our staff, to initiate legal proceedings without further reference to you.'

The letter had the desired effect. Since receiving it last year Mr Flaig, a railway tracklayer, has desisted from criticising KTV for fear of a writ. 'What next?' he asks the Eye. 'Will Tarmac sue me if I say Kent’s roads are crap?' He has been unable to establish whether council leader Paul Carter endorsed Ten Alps’s threatening letter. Last week he received an opaque missive from Geoff Wild, Kent CC’s director of law & governance, containing the line: 'If you continue to choose to exercise your right to free speech in the manner that you do - as is your right - you must expect to take whatever consequences the law provides…' Very reassuring.

Kent resident Geldof - he lives in a modest priory near Faversham - countered criticisms of KTV by appearing on it before Christmas. With his customary exactitude, Saint Bob explained: 'It’s the old establishment versus the new kids on the block. This spurious beating up of Kent TV on the notion that it’s political is rubbish, it’s a commercial attack. It’s a great service - it’s precisely what should happen with this amazing thing.'

Oh, do fock off, Bob!

Oops, silly me. I seem to have reprinted the entire article there. I'd better scarper before Lord Gnome's m'learneds come after me for copyright infringement!

Bignews Goes Ballistic!

Cripes! Tony Flaig, keeper of Margate's premier blog, has written to every KCC councillor following a shocking lack of response from Tory leader Ruddy-Faced Man to his complaint about a KCC contractor's ham-fisted attempt to shut him up!

Tony, aka Sausage Man, recently called a halt to his Bignews Margate blog in protest at the resounding silence from R-FM concerning a legally threatening letter from Sir Bob Geldoff's Kent TV. So far our lovely county council has spent around £2m of our money on Kent TV, and our Tone, quite rightly in my opinion, feels he has a democratic right to criticise the channel's output. But apparently not according to Ten Alps, the Bob-backed company which makes it.

Anyway, here's the text of Tony's council-wide email:

Dear councillor,

I am a local blogger, I write about local issues predominantly concerning Kent and generally more specifically Thanet.

I frequently write about policy issues concerning Kent Council. Naturally Kent council's high profile project Kent TV is one of those issues I considered worth referring to, since broadcast media would appear to many people a departure from the normal services taxpayers expect from their local authority.

At the end of June last year, I received a letter from a Kent County council contractor taking exception to comments I had made about Kent TV, the first line of their letter being 'I am responding to the comments posted on your blog regarding Kent TV'. This letter appeared to carry an implied threat that should I make further comments, they might well sue me.

At the time, I contacted the company concerned, asking the author of the letter whether there were any statements etc. that they wished me to withdraw, and at no point was I asked withdraw any statements.

Also at around the same time I contacted both Paul Carter, and then Peter Gilroy (KCC's £230,000 a year chief executive - Ed.) concerning this matter. Both subsequently wrote to me, apparently both supporting the contractor's rights, but neither appeared to acknowledge my right to express a valid opinion on the wisdom of a public authority wasting taxpayers' money on a questionable enterprise.

At no time do I feel that I have criticised the professionalism or competence of any contractor, although I have certainly questioned the output of Kent TV and its purpose.

I would like Kent Council to make a clear statement to the effect that Kent residents are entitled to make reasonable comments as they see fit about political issues in line with those rights guaranteed under article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. If Kent Council don't make a clear commitment to residents' rights to free speech, then what's next? Contractors to other departments sending out letters, when say a resident complains about Kent Highways? Maybe suppliers of cones, tarmac or even advertising might send letters offering legal action?

I have currently suspended posts to my blog site, until such time as Paul Carter responds to the email I sent him on the 13th of January 2009. All I want is a clear statement from KCC making it clear they support free speech even if its critical.

Regards Tony Flaig
Bignews Margate

Kent TV Ends At Canterbury

Given all the recent hoo-ha about some massive increase in the viewing figures for Kent TV, the £1.6m internet TV station run by our Tory county council, I thought I'd sneak another peek. However, at the risk of yet again incurring the wrath of Jo Phillips, Kent TV's PR person, I have to say the channel never fails to disappoint.

It's not just because it take ages to download the video you've selected. Or because, once you've finally downloaded it, it invariable looks and sounds like something a depressed gerbil on mogadons would find under-stimulating. Nor, for that matter, because the whole thing could have been set up on BoobTube for nothing. No. What really gets my proverbial is the way the station's definition of 'Kent' seems to stop at the Wantsum.

Try clicking on their Visit Kent section, for example. Here we sit on a (mostly) beautiful island that has recently been praised for the quality of its bathing waters, and only yesterday was awarded more Blue Flag beaches than anywhere else in the country. Last week Visit Kent, KCC's tourism arm, themselves declared Thanet to be the second most popular tourist destination in the county, after Canterbury. Things you'd imagine might be worthy of note on a TV station that was being funded by your hard-earned sponds. Yet out of around 60 films I found only two about Thanet. And one of those was a dreary report on the Dreamland fire - hardly anything to shout about tourism-wise.

So although there may be slightly more than one man and his dog watching Kent TV these days, you have to say that, as far as Thanet viewers are concerned, it surely won't be long before the dog runs off with the remote and buries it in the back garden.

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Off

Yikes! According to yesterday's excellent Kent On Sunday, your taxpayer funded Kent TV has failed to meet its visitor targets in the first eight months since its launch.

Despite enjoying a hefty £1.6m subsidy, the station only attracted just over 20,000 visitors in March, well down on its 50,000 target. And considerably down, I might add, on my latest contribution to ECR TV, which got 30,000 hits in the space of a few days - and at absolutely no cost to you! The Kent County Council channel, which is run by Sir Gob's Ten Alps production company, was also projected to make £260,000 in advertising and sponsorship in its second year, but so far has only picked up a woeful £10,000.

KCC's opposition Labour group says it is becoming increasingly concerned that 'the protestations of political even-handedness are being slowly eroded with certain prospective parliamentary candidates being given preferential billing, while the local election coverage has been cleverly unbalanced.' Which was dismissed, rather arrogantly if you ask me, by a Ten Alps spokeswoman as 'playground party politics'.

Still, you have to read the story with more than a modicum of sodium chloride, since Kent On Sunday is owned by KOS Media, which in turn produces rival yourKentTV, where a viewing figure of more than 20 is a cause for celebration and treble gin and tonics all round!

I Kent Believe It!

Chatting with my old TV chum Nigel Dacre (Project Director of KCC-funded Kent TV) last night over a few glasses of the good stuff, I increasingly came to realise that I've been getting it wrong by banging on about what a waste of council taxpayers dosh KCC's internet TV channel is. In fact Kent TV really is a splendid organ, and well worth the £1.6m we've all invested in it. Keep up the good work!

Erm, actually I think I might still be a little bit tipsy.

Bollock Dropped

I have received the following email concerning my recent post about Kent TV:

Dear Mr Eastcliff,

I just wanted to point out that comments you’ve made regarding Nigel Dacre , Ten Alps and Kent TV on your blog are factually incorrect.

Although Nigel did indeed step down as MD of Ten Alps Digital last year , we have a consultancy contract with him and are working together on a number of projects. Nigel remains as Ten Alps Project Director for Kent TV – a project to which he and Ten Alps are obviously very committed.

I would be grateful if you’d correct your inaccuracies and the suggestion that Nigel no longer has anything to do with either Ten Alps or Kent TV.

Regards

Jo Phillips
Director, Communications
Ten Alps plc
9 Savoy Street
London
WC2E 7HR

Under the new Responsible Blogging regime on this site, I'm happy to oblige Ma'am! Give my love to Nige!

ND The MD Quits KCC TV

Lumme! If I hadn't been taken off the air for five weeks, I might have spotted this one a bit sooner! I see my old TV chum Nigel Dacre has quit his post as head of much-criticised (by me) Kent TV. The internet based channel was launched due to unpopular demand by Kent County Council last year, blowing £1.6m of your lovely taxpayers' smackeroonies in the process.

Follicly challenged Nigel, brother of Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, quietly departed Kent TV in, um, November 2007. Last December £229,000-a-year KCC Chief Executive Peter Gilroy announced that he was 'very pleased' with the number of people watching the channel - 109,000 in the three months since its launch in September 2007. Or to put it in context, a daily reach equivalent to 0.000118% of EastEnders.

Nifty Nigel, as his colleagues never knew him, is now setting up his own Web TV channel, but said he had very much enjoyed working at Sir Gob's Ten Alps production company, which is responsible for Kent TV. Ah well, now that Nigel's only making plans for Nigel there'll be more time for tennis I suppose. If I recall, he used to get me every time with a rather wicked backhand!

Click here for full Guardian story

Bob Beats Margate In Ugly Dispute

The results of my latest 7 day poll are in, and it seems Sir Bob Geldof has beaten Margate in the ugly stakes by a slightly greasy hair's breadth. Here's the final tally:

Question: Which one's uglier - Margate or Sir Bob Geldof?

Sir Bob: 51% (24 votes)
Margate: 48% (23 votes)

The brouhaha over the Boomtown Rat's recent comment that Margate was 'ugly', in a council tax funded newspaper, now seems to have died down. Some commentators have even suggested inviting him to become an ambassador for the place. Who knows, despite the fact that we already fund his Ten Alps production company to the tune of £1.6m to produce the ludicrously wasteful Kent TV, perhaps he'll set up Margate Aid and demand that we all give him some more f*cking money!

Budget? Fudge It!

Noshing down the old blinis and caviar at lunchtime, I happened to catch Paul Carter, the rosy-cheeked leader of Tory Kent County Council, being interviewed on BBC local news about a looming £30m budget shortfall at County Hall. He was blaming central government, of course, but when pressed by the presenter about such profligacies as the £1.6m he's spent on Sir Bob's Kent TV he answered the question in true political fashion. That is by ignoring the question completely. I presume he would have taken the same tack if he'd been asked about the £6m wasted on 'vital' PR.

Meanwhile I see Sir Bob was lambasted in the Independent over the weekend following his ugly comments about Margate (don't forget to vote in my poll on the right). The report contained this interesting sentence:

Yet he has also contributed much to the community. Last September Geldof's television production company, Ten Alps, launched the UK's first council-funded broadband television channel.

And there was me thinking it was our 1.6 million smackers that we had contributed to him!

Lights, Camera, Inaction!

Eschewing the tawdry entertainments on offer from the major channels this Christmas, I decided to support my local TV station and tuned in exclusively to Kent County Council TV's festive fare. After all, it's cost us £1.6m and I figured, for that kind of money, the least they'd be doing was exhuming and re-animating Morecambe and Wise this year.

So imagine my disappointment when I discovered their prime time Christmas viewing consisted of a lame docco about some amdram panto, advice from the British Christmas Tree Growers' Association about how to prevent your needles dropping, and a member of Her Majesty's Scrotum Scratchers breath testing drivers on Margate front for the benefit of the cameras. Admittedly the panto docco was, albeit unintentionally, almost as amusing as Extras, but where was the seasonal message from the Tory council's ruddy-faced leader, telling us how he was going to pull a cracker and roast his nuts this Yuletide?

Later, as I was changing Bertie's litter tray, I came across an old copy of the Gazunder which carried a story about £229,000-a-year KCC Chief Executive Peter Gilroy being 'very pleased' with the number of people watching the channel - 109,000 since its launch in September. Crumbs! By my reckoning, that's around 8,000 viewers a week, or, with around 400 videos on their site, 270 viewers per video! At an average cost of £4000 per video, it would be cheaper to mail out the DVDs individually, surely? If I made programmes that attracted a grand total of 270 viewers, I'd be sacked. As indeed I have been on many an occasion.

I've a good mind to write to my old TV chum Nigel Dacre, the Ten Alps Project Director behind Kent TV, and the brother of Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, and complain. Or perhaps I'll just pop round his North London mansion and make my views known in person!

TV Winners

Kent on Sunday (on Saturday) are splashing their new Kent TV service all over the front page today, urging readers to send in clips ahead of the launch of their BoobTube-alike platform for Kent next month. 500 smackers are on offer for the best entry, which, they say, could encompass anything from 'a great day out' to, er, 'Morris dancing'.

Don't knock it, though, as they're well ahead of KCC TV, of whom we hear, well, um, nothing, despite hundreds of thousands of our tax sovs being ploughed into it. Of course, both channels have been well and truly trumped by my own ECR TV, which has been serving the Thanet nation since March. No pesky propaganda, no annoying ads, just pure entertainment!