Ten Alps to bid for local news pilots

Ten Alps — the London-headquartered television production and media group, which was co-founded by Bob Geldof — is planning to team up with the Northern Irish division of Independent News & Media (INM) to bid for any local independently funded news consortium pilot contracts tendered for regional news services in the North.

“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. No interpretation we’ve heard actually makes sense — from lack of funds for the province, to lack of credible alternative news suppliers.

“So, 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,” Mr Geldof — a non-executive director of Ten Alps — said.