Scotland should soon have its first customised business-to-business satellite television channel with the development of Energy TV by AVC Media - the Aberdeen-based media group.

AVC, who are sole agent for BSkyB in the sale of satellite broadcast services to offshore installations, the Royal Navy and "anything that floats", has established a strategic partnership with a satellite broadcaster to set up the channel, which will broadcast to subscribers both on land and offshore.

Oil News Focus

The new channel will extend its range beyond the oil industry to embrace energy news in general but oil news will be at the centre of its focus.

With the imminent launch of two new local television channels and a raft of local internet sites about to be established by Scottish local newspaper groups, the development of Energy TV reflects the rapid change in how Scots and Scottish businesses receive their news.

Managing director Keith Main, who founded the AVC group in 1976 to supply mobile discotheque equipment to north-east Scotland nightspots, and now presides over a company with a £5m turnover, said: "It is an exciting project for us. We believe that there is a strong demand for a channel delivering energy news and that it would be relevant to a whole raft of companies.

Strategic Partnership

"We have the strategic partners required to launch such a channel and we are in ongoing discussions. We are now about to embark on a series of meetings with Scottish Enterprise, business and oil industry bodies, to elicit support for what ought to become an important part of the oil industry scene."

The Energy TV project is being driven by Neil Gordon, AVC’s director of media production. He said: "It will be a business to business channel using satellite technology and will be aimed at the oil and gas industry to be viewed on and offshore.

"We are looking at various opportunities, but ultimately we want to be able to do it on broadband technology. The channel will offer a mix of energy and business news programmes, training and updates on changes to relevant legislation like health and safety."

Industry Acceptance

AVC aims to make the channel part of the infrastructure of the oil and gas industry in much the same way as AVC is already an accepted part of the industry.

Main, who swiftly moved on to video rentals from disco equipment, was in the right place at the right time in the 1970s as the oil industry swept in to Aberdeen.

Flying to London sometimes twice a week, he picked up the latest wholesale video tapes of feature films that were available and rented them out to members of his video library.

It gave him a strong income stream and renting to offshore installations was an obvious next move. The hire of cinema projection equipment to rigs followed and from that AVC entered into licensing agreements with major film companies including Warner Bros and United Industrial Productions.

AVC now has seven divisions including a sports division, which supplies educational and promotional material to the Scottish Football Association, English FA and Fifa. Film and satellite services are provided by the company, not only to the offshore sector but also to hotel and commercial clients across Europe.

Its production division makes training videos for the offshore industry and its new base in Aberdeen provides sought-after conference facilities with state of the art equipment and video links.