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Ten Alps join forces with the
Ten Alps join forces with the.
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[{"type":"text","content":"\n RNS Number : 2698Z Ten Alps PLC 18 September 2009 \n \n\n\n18 September 2009\n\n\nTen Alps Plc\n\nTen Alps and Belfast Telegraph join forces to bid \nfor a Northern Ireland Local News Pilot\n\nTen Alps Plc, the factual media company, today announced that it plans to bid with Independent News and Media (NI), publishers of the Belfast Telegraph, for any local Independently Funded News Consortium (IFNC) pilot contracts tendered for regional news services for Northern Ireland. \n\nSo far, Northern Ireland is the only one of the UK's nations that has been denied a recommendation for a pilot IFNC in OFCOM's landmark Digital Britain report. \n\nAt the Royal Television Society's conference in Cambridge this morning, Ten Alps and the Belfast Telegraph therefore appealed for a pilot for the province. The groups said they believed a successful pilot IFNC could have positive economic, democratic, technological and cultural implications for Northern Ireland, and they outlined a vision of a cross-platform rolling news service taking in Channel 3 news bulletins, press, localized websites and online TV coverage.\n\nBob Geldof, non-executive director and co-founder of Ten Alps, said today in London: \n\n'The exclusion of Northern Ireland from the pilots in the Digital Britain report was something frankly odd. But it is also something rare - an unfortunate accident which can easily be put right. \n\nNo interpretation we've heard actually makes sense - from lack of funds for the province, to lack of credible alternative news suppliers. \n\nSo we ask the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to give Belfast a tender process, and allow Northern Ireland to fully engage in a democratic process in the vitally important news sector. Let all companies with great ideas come forward, and take this chance to explore the best way to cover local news for the coming decades. \n\nFair competition for public funding, and equality for Northern Ireland with England, Scotland and Wales: surely no one will disagree with that?'\nIn Belfast this morning, Michael Brophy, chief executive officer of INMNI, said: \n\n'This is a tremendously exciting project that has the potential to transform the provision of television news and current affairs in Northern Ireland. \n'The combine...