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Ofcom has yesterday announced licences to run local TV services in Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee on digital terrestrial TV.

STV successfully applied for the three licences:

Aberdeen

Channel name: Around Aberdeen
Website: www.stv.tv

Ayr

Channel name: Ayrshire Yesterday 
Website: www.stv.tv

Dundee

Channel name: View from the Bridges
Website: www.stv.tv

Local TV is a new form of broadcasting, enabled through legislation passed by the UK Parliament in 2011.

Ofcom is responsible for licensing local TV stations on digital terrestrial TV and has now awarded 33 licences across the UK, to a wide range of different organisations, from not-for-profit community ventures to new commercial partnerships between local newspapers, TV production companies and educational institutions.

A total of 16 local TV services are now on-air, from Brighton and Hove to Cardiff, Belfast and Glasgow (see below).

In awarding local TV licences, Ofcom conducts a thorough assessment of bids against the requirements set by Parliament.

Bidders must explain how they will meet the needs of local viewers and demonstrate they are financially sustainable. When awarding a licence Ofcom carefully considers these factors and makes the best decision it can on the available evidence.

Statements setting out the main reasons for the award of the local TV licences for Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee are published onOfcom’s website.

Ofcom has also agreed licence variations for STV Edinburgh and STV Glasgow. The licence variation will allow these channels to reduce the hours of repeats of local TV programmes shown during peak hours from seven hours of repeats to none. Ofcom agreed this change because it will not be a departure from the character of service. The hours of first run local programming, overall hours of repeats of local programming and scheduling of local news and current affairs programming required under STV’s licences will remain the same.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. 16 local TV services are now on-air:

2. Ofcom also received one application to run a local TV service in Inverness but did not award the licence. Further details can be found on Ofcom’s website.

MEDIA
Emma Hutchinson
emma.hutchinson@ofcom.org.uk
Ofcom Communications
+44 (0)300 123 1795