Grimsby has the honour of launching the UK’s first local TV channel on Freeview, with Channel 7 set to morph into Lincolnshire Living sometime in November 2013.
Latest news for local TV in GrimsbyChannel 7 can proudly claim to be the UK’s longest running TV channel, having launched in 1998, and currently reaches 140,000 people across North and North East Lincolnshire via Virgin Media channel 879 and online at channel7tv.co.uk.
When the new Freeview service is switched on for the area, it will appear at channel 8 in the programme guide as well as reaching beyond Grimsby – hence the change of name to Lincolnshire Living.
Read Recombu Digital’s guide to Local TVUntil now, Channel 7 has been a Lottery-funded venture which looks to work with local communities and individuals to create ‘real life community stories covering sports, leisure, social enterprise, ethical living, local environment.’
Lincolnshire Living will likely follow a similar community ethos. The indicative schedule submitted to Ofcom shows that the majority of programmes will consist of community slots and 15 local news broadcasts a day.
What’s Local TV all about?
Local TV is an ongoing project to 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.
When will Local TV be coming to Grimsby?
Aside from Channel 7 which is already broadcasting online and on Virgin Media, Lincolnshire Living won’t likely be coming to local screens until next year.
Ofcom expects that all Local TV stations will be live by the end of 2013 at the latest. Grimsby is one of the initial 21 locations which has been listed for the first wave of Local TV so it should arrive sooner rather than later.
Will I have to retune my Freeview box?
Local TV will be coming to Freeview channel 8 when it launches in Grimsby, so you will need to retune in order to get the new channel.
Can I get Local TV on Sky, Virgin Media or Freesat?
There’s still an ongoing debate as to where Local TV will appear on Sky’s programme guide. Sky proposes that Local TV channels will be accessible via the yellow button on its remote, instead of having to give up the 8th position on its programme guide.
Virgin Media wants to deliver all Local TV channels through an app on its TiVo boxes, providing access to Local TV streams from all over the country. For non-TiVo boxes Virgin Media would allocate a channel slot further down the programme guide, but it probably wouldn’t be at number 8 – it’s more likely to be around where current news channels like BBC News and CNN reside – around the 600 region.
Freesat is currently deciding where it would place Local TV channels in its programme guide. Freesat broadcasts to much wider areas of the country, making fine-tuning to specific broadcast regions tricker than it is to do with Freeview. The new Free Time from Freesat service could deliver Local TV over a broadband connection in a similar way to Virgin Media’s app proposal.
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