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Local TV provider named for Yorkshire city

Media regulator Ofcom has named Made in Leeds as the successful bidder to provide local TV services in the city.

The company, which overcame four rival bidders to win the licence, is part of the Made Television group that has already won the licences to run similar services in Bristol, Cardiff and Tyne & Wear.

It aims to begin broadcasting on Freeview Channel 8 by the end of this year and will reach up to 1m people in Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Dewsbury.

The company said in its application that the “honesty, openness and frankness of our people” would be the driving force of its programmes.

“We plan to follow in the path of those icons of Leeds who have walked before us and be at the cutting edge of modern society and culture,” it said.

“Made in Leeds aims to forge its way to the heart of the city and its public. The primary focus of the channel is on closing the democratic deficit left by the absence of a public service broadcaster focused on the city of Leeds itself.

“We have built a newsgathering strategy focusing on increasing civic participation through proactive community-oriented journalism, placing our journalists on the beat in their own patch in the city, becoming a point of access for news and information in every part of town.”

The licence is the 17th to be awarded with just two more to go in the first phase of the project.

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  • February 18, 2013 at 12:36 pm
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    This story makes a strange claim about the absence of a public service broadcaster focused on the city of Leeds itself , but also says the station will reach people in Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Dewsbury. Much like BBC Radio Leeds, then.

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