We’re on TV!
Brighton & Hove is put firmly on the map as Latest TV wins the TV licence for our city. Frank le Duc speaks to Latest TV MD Bill Smith
Latest TV has been awarded the local TV licence for Brighton and Hove. The station will be the first of a new generation of terrestrial TV channels and is due to start broadcasting next year. Programmes such as the arts and entertainment show Brighton Lights, which is already available online, will be screened on Freeview. The announcement of the first two new channels – the other is Lincolnshire Living, which is based in Grimsby – comes after a long local campaign.
Latest TV managing director Bill Smith said that the first two licences had gone to bidders who were already making programmes and putting them online. He said: “At last Brighton and Hove will have its own television station, with its own studios in the heart of the city at Latest Musicbar, broadcasting on Channel 8 on the Freeview platform, with slots on other platforms to be confirmed. “We look forward to delivering the latest news and sport, top-class entertainment, documentaries, education, comedy, music and everything that the people of Brighton and Hove expect from a quality TV station.
“We also look forward to working with the existing local independent producers in the city like BTV/Electric Sky and back2back productions. We have just covered Pride – see Brighton Lights 42 at thelatest.tv – and we look forward to covering all the major events in Brighton and Hove’s calendar and making people across the UK and abroad know how amazing this city is. Not for nothing does a local column call it ‘CelebCity’.
“Brighton and Hove has the biggest arts festival in England, a brand spanking new football stadium that is one of the best in the UK, top-class businesses, world class universities and colleges, great radio stations and magazines and, as everyone knows, it is one of the sexiest places on earth.
“Brighton is not properly serviced by local TV. It has newspapers, magazines, radio but no TV – but it does now. Latest TV looks forward to showcasing the best of Brighton, Hove, Worthing and surrounding areas, and also to working with the BBC to provide up-to-the-minute local news. With Wired Sussex, Latest TV will be a catalyst for growth in the crucial digital, creative and IT sector.”
The licence has been awarded for up to 12 years. Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, invited applications in May 2012 to run local TV services in 21 towns and cities – and 57 applications were submitted.
“We look forward to covering all the major local events and making people across the UK and abroad know how amazing our city is”
When officials drew up the original list of locations, they left off Brighton and Hove, focusing on Britain’s biggest cities. But an all-party campaign with fantastic community and business support persuaded Jeremy Hunt, who was Culture Secretary at the time, to change his mind. The policy to encourage new channels was championed by Mr Hunt even before he became a minister. He was promoted in the recent cabinet reshuffle and it was left to his replacement Maria Miller to announce the licence for Brighton and Hove.
The project is being supported nationally by £25 million of capital funding, mainly to cover the cost of transmitters, and then by £5 million a year for three years. This is believed to be worth a six-figure sum for each broadcaster in the first year, with the BBC expected to buy content.
Mr Smith said: “Latest TV would like to thank the past and present Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt and Maria Miller, the DCMS and all at Ofcom for realising the importance of local democracy.
“We would also like to thank our three MPs, Caroline Lucas, Mike Weatherley and Simon Kirby, and Jason Kitcat, the leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, for the council’s support, plus Gill Mitchell, the leader of the Brighton and Hove Labour and Co-operative Party, and Lord Bassam of Brighton for their cross-
party support.”
