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First local TV channel to go on air tomorrow

The long-awaited rollout of local TV services in towns and cities in the UK will get under way tomorrow.

Estuary TV is set to launch in Grimsby and is the first of 19 local TV stations due to go on air over the next year.

The channel, which will be broadcast from three TV studios at the Grimsby Institute and University Centre Grimsby, will be available on channel 8 of the Freeview electronic programme guide.

It was given a pre-launch boost when government minister Ed Vaizey, government minister for culture, communications and creative industries, visited the Grimsby station last week to see the new policy on local  TV in action.

Lia Nici, executive producer of Estuary, said: “Often we don’t realise how innovative we are in Grimsby and actually we’re ahead of the game.

“We are the first local Freeview channel to launch and that is a huge accolade for the creative industries in our region.”

The launch is taking place in the University Centre Grimsby and will see invited guests and VIPs amongst the first to see some of the new programmes that will be broadcast throughout Northern Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire.

Programmes currently being planned for the launch include regular news bulletins, a sports discussion programme ‘On the Bench’, a Friday night talk show ‘That Friday Show’, a cookery programme ‘The Lincolnshire Kitchen‘ and other documentaries and entertainment programmes.

“The key to the work we do is training.  People come from all over the globe to train here because they can’t get this type of training anywhere else and we will be working with over 200 students every year in the production of our programmes,” added Lia.

Archant and Trinity Mirror are among the regional publishers who have already been handed licences to run local TV channels by broadcast regulator Ofcom.

Norfolk-based Archant won the licence to run Mustard TV in Norwich, while a partnership between Made TV and Trinity Mirror’s the South Wales Echo has been awarded the licence for Cardiff.

4 comments

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  • November 25, 2013 at 10:40 am
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    Please, please don’t take this as a criticism of this new venture especially as no-one has seen the planned output.
    In fact I genuionely wish them good luck – or rather, break a leg!
    But (here we go) am I right in thinking this venture will be produced by a rolling staff of media students?
    Nothing wrong with that.
    Students who will get structured on the job training to become professional TV technicians, presenters and other roles going on to fill positions in the industry and in the meantime providing a relevant local media channel which could attract viewers and advertisers?
    So NOT keen members of the public with an iPhone sending in user generated content to be ‘curated’ by a skeleton crew of ‘content editors’.

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  • November 25, 2013 at 12:47 pm
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    Tosh. Utter tosh. People are just dreaming if they think they can get this sort of thing off the ground. No-one learns any lessons and no one seems to get that LIFE IS NOT LOCAL any more. No kudos for people trying, they are in a fantasy land and wanting to play at being media people. One look at an amateur, parochial production and people will never switch on again. Fact

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  • November 26, 2013 at 2:06 pm
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    Archants offering is the dreadful Mustard TV,its unbelievably awful and that`s just the online edition that no ones watching,
    The presenters are comically wooden,they sound dreadful and yet despite puffing itself up and getting staff to “like” them on FB and Twitter they still haven’t got an audience.
    The content is simply laughable,in one of the features on a new shop,a friend of the producer probably,the female presenter actually kisses the featured business owner at the start of the piece!

    However,that said,i am really looking forward to seeing this Partridge-esque fiasco if it ever goes to air,it will be the funniest thing on free view,sadly for all the wrong reasons, monkey tennis anyone?

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  • November 27, 2013 at 12:42 pm
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    Best of luck to them but I can’t see this working.

    It’s one thing for a local media website to do wee bits of news video (and even then only when relevant) but I’m not sure there’s enough local interest to sustain a round-the-clock TV-style offering. Who’d watch a third-rate knock-off of, say, the Changing Rooms or Come Dine With Me format when they could just watch the original shows?

    Also, isn’t it a bit wasteful to broadcast using over the air transmission when, these days, a technically-savvy outfit can broadcast online for a fraction of the cost and effort?

    I give it a year – and that’s being generous.

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