An independent local newspaper publisher and regional TV news company have teamed up to bid for the new TV pilot scheme.

NWN Media, which publishes the daily Leader titles in Cheshire and North Wales along with a host of sister weeklies, is joining forces with UTV in the hope of securing the Independently Funded News Consortium pilot for Wales.

Proposals to launch three pilot TV news projects – covering Wales, Scotland and north-east England – were outlined in the Digital Britain report in the summer and will take over the provision of regional news on Channel 3 from 2013.

Licences for the pilot schemes are due to be awarded in March with Trinity Mirror and Press Association going head-to-head with ITN and ITV Tyne Tees and Borders for the North East pilot.

The pilot projects aim to develop sustainable multi-platform regional news with the UTV and NWN Media partnership branding itself WALES LIVE, complete with a new website waleslive.tv.

NWN Media MD David Faulkner said: “As a company who base what we do around solid grass roots journalism in Wales we feel this is an outstanding opportunity for us.

“Our print titles are about news and feature content that really matters to people on a local level and this partnership will be about employing this proven and popular approach on a wider canvass.

“We are a Welsh company with successful titles already covering the length and breadth of North and Mid Wales.

“Our local approach really does allow us to give voice to local communities as well as reporting their news.

“We think this WALES LIVE partnership with UTV and the skills and proven quality they bring to it is the best possible option to offer a cohesive and quality based news provision to Wales as a whole.”

Comments

Ollie (10/12/2009 09:39:48)
Why the need to cap up WALES LIVE?