Swindon Viewpoint is a local community TV channel based in, and serving

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

. In more than half a century of history, it has been through several incarnations; including its early experimental cable TV phase, its main phase in the 1970s and 1980s, its 1990s low key phase, and its current active online phase since 2000.

History

Swindon Viewpoint began broadcasting on 11 September 1973 as an experiment in community cable television, or

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

. It was initially run by Richard Dunn, who later went on to become head of

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

. The experiment started with

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

finance on the

Radio Rentals Radio Rentals was founded in 1930Radio Rentals Staff Handbook by Percy Perring-Thoms in Brighton, Sussex, UK, to rent out radio sets, with a turnover in the first year of £780 (). It later offered televisions and videorecorders for rent. In ...

cable radio Cable radio is radio broadcasting into homes and businesses via a cable. This can be a coaxial cable used for television, or a telephone line. It is generally used for the same reason as cable TV was in its early days when it was "community ante ...

and television relay network. Local people could train in television programme making by using its television production equipment. Many of its programmes were 'one-off' documentaries that interested the volunteers involved or programmes of more general public interest. The first studios were in the basement of Radio Rentals' premises in

's Victoria Road then later in the Town Hall Arts Studios. The experimental phase ended in 1976 when EMI decided to pull out of funding the service, even though it was considered very popular and appeared to be flourishing. The main reason seems to have been that the government would not allow advertising or sponsorship. After much local protest, Swindon Viewpoint was sold to the public of Swindon for £1 and an elected board of directors set up to oversee it. Viewpoint thus became the first television service that was publicly owned and managed. Programming continued for the rest of the decade with a staff of around six to train the public to make programmes, and was funded by a mix of sponsorship and a Ladbrokes operated lottery scheme, a forerunner of the National Lottery. Viewpoint's central programming strand was a magazine-based programme called '' Seen in Swindon'' There were also regular Arts and Music programmes showcasing local creativity. When the lottery scheme ended in 1980, funding dried up and the service faced closure. To save the service, Martin Parry took the helm as Chairman of the Directors and Viewpoint went into partnership with Media Arts, the public media centre in Swindon, placing its TV production equipment there, (though this partnership recognised and maintained the independence of Viewpoint). With no staff the operation was now entirely volunteer based, but nevertheless flourished through the 1980s. Its main programme strand was called '' Access Swindon''. In the early 1990s Media Arts was restructured by the council and funding for Viewpoint was withdrawn. With no access to its owned production resources the board of directors resolved to suspend regular programming operations but maintain Viewpoint's structure and registration as a company, pending a more favourable climate. Broadcasting stopped temporarily at the end of April 1990, but continued intermittently with programmes made by volunteers over the next decade, and other forms of distribution such as VHS tape and screening in community venues were used. The service once again saw a rebirth after the millennium with many programmes made and distributed through the internet, and the station now operates as an online community TV station a
its website
(this website currently may be broken and funding is being sought to rebuild it), where it has current material and a selection from its archive of programmes, available for online streaming. A large selection of its programming is also available on https://vimeo.com/swindonviewpoint (several thousand productions). Viewpoint also uses social media to distribute its programming. Viewpoint continues to offer help, training and support to local people to enable them to make programmes and have their voices heard.

Legacy

The station has been seen as unique in a number of ways; it is Britain's (and probably Europe's) first and longest running public-access television service, and is also notable for being owned by the public from its early years.

References

External links

Swindon Viewpoint
Community television channels in the United Kingdom Mass media in Wiltshire Television channels and stations established in 1973 1973 establishments in England Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations disestablished in 1980 1980 disestablishments in England Cable-only UK television channels

History

Legacy

References

Further reading

External links