- Eight local channels lost access to TalkTV as the channel terminated existing broadcast arrangements.
Viewers tuning into the local Freeview TV channels serving places including Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds and Middlesbrough will now see something completely different…
At the beginning of 2023, Local TV Limited, part of media mogul David Montgomery’s business empire and News UK, owner of TalkTV had announced a deal that would see the local channels simulcast TalkTV outside of local news slots.
Then in October 2023, the partnership deepened further. All eight channels fully adopted TalkTV’s branding.
As TalkTV departs traditional broadcast platforms, local channels for Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, North East Wales, Teesside and Tyne and Wear are now screening a loop of up to four hours of mostly obscure entertainment programmes.
Replacement programmes
As part of the new local TV schedule, viewers can now see programmes including Confessions of a Beauty Addict, Magic’d and Chatty Lasses, a low-budget chat show that was made in the early years of local TV in Newcastle.
Other programmes joining the schedule include The Heritage Chart Show with Mike Reid, which is also shown on Talking Pictures. There’s also fitness un the mornings with Pilates At Home.
Before signing up to carry TalkTV, the local services had previously carried the CBS Reality as a networked sustaining service outside of local news programmes.
Local TV Limited is the UK’s second largest chain of local TV channels behind That’s TV. That’s TV has chosen to develop its own networked schedule of vintage TV shows and music videos. It also runs a UK-wide channel (without the local opt-outs) on all main TV platforms. The remaining local TV channels, including London Live, operate their own individual schedules.
Local channels are broadcast on Freeview channel 7 or 8, Freely channel 8 or 9 and Virgin Media channel 159. However, some channels have very limited coverage.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: Local TV Ltd