Later tonight the studio lights at the Antenna Media Centre in Nottingham will be switched off.

They will not be turned on again.

Today marks the last day of broadcasting by Notts TV, part of a pioneering experiment in hyper-local TV services first launched by Jeremy Hunt under the Coalition government.

The channel, which broadcasts a small number of hours of local news, sport, culture and current affairs debates per week, is available on Freeview channel 7 (the old BBC 3 slot) for residents in the Nottingham area.

The service launched in 2014, initially supported by the BBC, but when Notts TV’s licence was renewed a few years later Nottingham Trent University (NTU) took over as the parent organization and key funder.

Since then NTU has supported the channel as a part of its training offering to undergraduate journalism students.

However, earlier this year the university announced it would no longer support the channel due to increasing costs and a decline in the need for training provision for undergraduates.

Initially the plan was to end in November 2025, but this was recently brought forward to midnight on the 29th August due to key staff moving rapidly on to other opportunities.

Some of the channel’s work was funded via the BBC as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

There are around thirty of what are officially described as Local Digital Television Programme Services (L-DTPS) across the UK. Since the first awarding of franchises in May 2012 there have been numerous changes of ownership and franchise of these local services, but it is clear that in at least some cities and towns they have become an important part of the local news arena.

It seems to me that PBers, being lovers of local news and politics, should be fully in support of the continuation of these types of services. Local newspapers have declined to the point of near extinction across much of the country and there is now a yawning gap in information on council democracy issues, local courts etc. The BBC local democracy scheme is having to carry a lot of weight as alternative local news sources shrink.

There was a review under the Sunak government which found they were a valuable service but that many were struggling with revenue issues.

As I understand it the licences for all these stations end in November 2025 but OfCom can allow a continuation of individual stations subject to a review. But again this was a policy announced under Sunak.

It is not clear what will happen in Nottingham and the local democracy reporting aspects have been passed onto Reach plc. who are, as I write, embroiled in a dispute with Reform councillors over being banned from council coverage in Notts.

I haven’t been able to find any information on what Labour plans to do with hyper-local TV. Perhaps other PBers have additional information?

Rotten Borough