The MP was speaking after attending a briefing event hosted by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Harriett took part in the discussions attended by more than 100 industry experts at Birmingham’s City University yesterday (Thursday). Jeremy Hunt laid out his strategy for bringing 20 pilot TV stations to towns which may include Malvern. Each of the 65 towns asked to bid for a pilot station has been selected because they have space on the digital TV platform once switchover has been completed from the analogue service. He called for organisations to pitch for the right to run a pilot and indcated that the bids would be judged on criteria including financial viability, local involvement, quality of output and impact. Local transmitter will be provided out of funding from the TV licence fee and the BBC has committed to buying some content back from the local TV stations to help with costs. Harriett said: “Several people have already indicated that they are interested in putting together bids and I was eager to question Jeremy Hunt directly and get a full understanding of what this may entail. “The key thing is to find a workable business model which delivers a minimum of one to two hours of local quality daily output on a low cost base. “The Secretary of State was keen to encourage local papers to be part of the possible partnerships and the example was given of how well local TV has done in Ireland, Canada and the USA.” “I met local entrepreneurs who would relish this sort of challenge and I know Malvern has a very strong sense of community and there is certainly lots happening in the town.” “Today’s media market is rapidly evolving and areas like internet sponsorship, product placement and co-funded programming are all possible sources of revenue. “It’s down to the brilliant brains of Malvern to come up with a bright solution to give Malvern a pioneering TV channel. I will happily look at any business plan which may end up giving us a station to be proud of.”