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Local TV in Newcastle: Made In Tyne & Wear granted licence by Ofcom

What’s new for Local TV in Newcastle?

Ofcom has awarded the Local TV licence for the region to Made TV, which plans to launch the Made In Tyne & Wear channel in 2013.

The new channel will feature a blend of local news and entertainment including sports and film reviews.

Station Manager Tony Hazell says “We’re thrilled to be awarded this licence after many years of hard work by the team. Tyne & Wear is already a creative capital with some fantastic TV companies based here and a strong history in production. Made in Tyne & Wear will be different though as we’ll be focussing on local programming by and for local viewers.”

Local TV in Newcastle: Made In Tyne & Wear


Who are Made In Tyne & Wear?

Made In Tyne & Wear is the product of Made TV, the company which has been awarded Local TV licences in Bristol and Cardiff.

Local partners include the Ambassador Theatre Group, Engage Sports Media, Metro Radio, Newcastle University, Northern Film & Media, Sunderland University, The Baltic Centre, The Newcastle Gateshead Initiative and TimeOut.

What will be on Made In Tyne & Wear?

Students from the University will be actively taking part in producing content for the channel and TimeOut will be providing reviews of films on show at local cinemas.

As well as this, Station Manager Tony Hazell has promised a “station dedicated to news, sports, local events, what’s on and a chance for us all to share what Tyne & Wear is to us. That’s what the media landscape here needs”.

Below is the indicative timetable submitted to Ofcom which gives us an idea of the programmes headed our way (click to enlarge).

Local TV in Newcastle: Made In Tyne & Wear

We can expect plenty of cooking programmes as well as similar content to what’s been promised for Made In Bristol and Made in Cardiff. Making good on the ‘local TV for local people’ angle there’s two programmes called  Question Tyne and Sunderland Talks.

There’s also a programme called Tony Loveshaft on Saturday nights which sounds interesting.

Where can I watch Made In Tyne & Wear?

Made In Tyne & Wear will be coming to Freeview on Channel 8 and to Virgin Media. Negotiations with how Local TV will appear on Sky and Freesat is still ongoing but Made TV is intending to launch on both these TV platforms after launching on Freeview.

As well as this, there are plans for BBC iPlayer-style online access of Made In Tyne & Wear programmes as well as content from the other Made TV channels.

Made TV has also won licence bids in Cardiff and Bristol and plans to make content from these channels accessible online and plans to launch apps for mobiles and tablets too. 

When will Local TV be coming to Tyne & Wear?

There’s nothing more specific available right now other than it’s expected to be live sometime in 2013.

What is Local TV anyway?

Local TV is an ongoing project which will bring local news, entertainment and services to at least 21 cities in the UK, with the possibility of this expanding to a further 28 areas. For a full list of the cities which are and could be getting a local station read our What is Local TV? feature. 

Will I have to retune my Freeview box?

Local TV will be coming to Freeview Channel 8 when it launches, but it will be on a new frequency with two other new TV channels, so you’ll need to retune in order to get them all.

Can I get Local TV on Sky, Virgin Media or Freesat?

It’s still not decided how Local TV will be appearing on other platforms, but Made In Tyne & Wear looks set to appear on Freeview and Virgin Media first and Sky and Freesat post-launch.

Virgin Media wants to deliver local TV through an app on its TiVo boxes, providing access to local TV streams from all over the country, and so it’ll probably appear on there. For non-TiVo customers, it will appear on an unused Virgin Media channel.

Sky and Freesat are a challenge for local TV channels, because buying satellite capacity for 21 channels is expensive. Satellite transmissions can’t be focussed onto small areas as easily as digital terrestrial (Freeview) and cable TV (Virgin Media) can.

It’s more likely that the channels will be delivered over broadband using Sky On Demand and the new Free Time from Freesat.

Main imaged credit: Flickr user Glen Bowman

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