Rowby

Rowby (branded as rowby although legally Rowby Television Ltd) was the Network Six franchisee for the London region as a weekday franchise, operating from April 2007 until March 2009. It was the primary television asset of Regal Television Group, where it was headquatered from Carolyna House in London, where broadcast playout was controlled by Regal Playout.

History
Rowby Television formed as the London Weekday broadcaster after a franchise bid for the North-West, which ended up as a draw between V Group and Regal Media. As a compromise, the un-bidded for London weekday franchise was awarded to Regal Media, and V Group were to keep the North West. Originally the franchise was played out from Lowbrown House, a small building which was only used temporarily. The building lacked qualities that were desperately needed, the power would constantly cut out, affecting transmission and other services, these reasons encouraged further Regal Television Group to move the franchise to the just-completed Theatre House, a much larger facility with four studios, a backup generator and a more reliable resources.

Broadcasting
The franchise broadcasts on all platforms held by Network Six, including Freeview, and also offers a HD simulcast of programming. Unlike the majority of modern broadcasters, Rowby does not yet offer a video on demand service. Research has gone into this in the past, with Carte Labs projects such as Project Carolyna, flux and Carte FiOS.

Weekday to Weekend
As the London area operates with two franchises, one weekday and one weekend, there is a change over at every Friday at 5:00pm to change to the Weekend regional franchisee, Exelon Weekend Television, and after which it resumes to Rowby at 6:00am on a Monday, after the breakfast news service.

Late Night

 * See main article: Night Vision

Like most franchises and channels, Rowby Television does not broadcast on the very late to early hours of the morning. During this time, an automated system Night Vision, is shown, a system devleoped by Vanquish Media and Carte Regal, but used separately in respective franchises. It shows information about programmes on the upcoming day, and on times shows Rowby Text as well as Taff Media News Channel.

The system is completely automatic during playout, but it is always monitored by a gallery team at Carolyna House. The content is produced prior to the broadcasting.

Films
Rowby Television was the second franchise to start using film ratings, after ScoTV. It uses the BBFC system for rating apart from an extra one for television.