THREAD! Obviously it shouldn't, but I can guess why London Live aired the Icke interview. The creation of the channel came from a bad Government policy, organisations like the Standard had to defend against potential new competition (with also a hope it might make money).. 1/8

To win a competitive beauty-parade style licence they have to promise a load of content, with a hope income will cover it (and that they'll probably be able to reduce it at some point to). They win and put a decent amount of effort in to delivering their plans... 2/8

This includes studios, staff and gear and marketing. Not that long after they realise it isn't working. Unsurprisingly it's almost impossible to establish a general entertainment channel without £££. Additionally 'local' isn't that important to TV viewers, and ITV and BBC... 3/8

...do it well in their news bulletins. London is also not particularly a local place, big London stories are national stories and are covered well. Nature of the City means community representation almost impossible to deliver. So... 4/8

...after the traditional couple of under-funded relaunches and programme tweaks, you cut the budget. Then you really cut the budget to the bone. People who are left try do do a valiant job, but they lack experience and high level support in their organisation. Job now is... 5/8

...to keep the channel on-air without spending anything or needing to bother bosses. Channel ends up offering slots for free or contra-ing airtime to get stuff that looks ok on the screen. Things like London Real. 6/8

London Real is a sub-Info Wars YouTube channel, with a bit of gloss, operation who will be after more distribution. What they make can look pretty good, and the 'work hard'/self-improvement end of their stuff is fine, whilst some of the stuff goes out, knowing... 7/8

...there's so few viewers they'll probably be fine. David Icke goes out when staff is over-stretched, under-thinking, and had to run a channel without much oversight or interest from the bosses. By the time it's announced, there's a scramble to save face and it's left on air. 8/8