Ten years of local broadcasting will come to an end later this year as Notts TV broadcasts its final show.The local TV station - owned and mostly subsidised by Nottingham Trent University - announced on Monday (February 17) its licence would not be renewed and it would come off air in November.I’ve worked closely with Notts TV since its inception and know lots of the staff there. The kind of opportunities it can offer for journalism students on the “Notts TV pathway” at NTU are unrivalled and I’ve hired many of its graduates myself. Where else could students work on a live TV station like this?Reader, you may think I’d be celebrating the loss of a competitor. But it doesn’t work like that. The local media ecosystem is a poorer place without Notts TV. We each brought something different for audiences but we found much common ground.Over the years, we’ve worked on several projects together - most recently a hustings event for the East Midlands Mayoral elections which was screened on Notts TV and our Facebook pages and featured on our website and in print. Our photographer also provided imagery for the post-event publicity.Nottinghamshire Live used to have a daily slot on the news show where we would talk about the biggest stories of the day. This personally gave me experience of live and pre-recorded television, something I would later go on to do fairly regularly in my role as editor on much bigger channels.It's been a breeding ground for many great journalists who have gone on to different jobs and that sort of environment is important in our industry. With the number of jobs shrinking across the board, no journalist out there would take pleasure in seeing yet another outlet close down. The more voices out there in the media, the more choice the audience has, the better.But it’s the training opportunities for student journalists that will be irreplaceable in our city. That safe, yet real, environment is unlike anywhere else and will be missed. NTU has an excellent reputation for its journalism training and I hope students will still find it an attractive prospect, without the Notts TV feather in its cap.
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