STV awarded two local TV licences for Glasgow and Edinburgh

STV Group has been awarded licences to run the new local television services for Scotland’s main cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The group, which already holds the Channel 3 licence across Scotland, will work in conjunction with local universities for the new channels. In total, Ofcom has awarded 14 licences so far for the new local television stations across the UK.

The awards follow new legislation enabling Ofcom to issue local TV licences. The channels will broadcast on a specific ‘multiplex’, a discrete amount of spectrum reserved for local TV broadcasting on DTT.

The channel for Glasgow will be called GTV and for Edinburgh will be ETV. In a statement, STV said both channels will provide “innovative television” for their respective communities.

“STV is delighted to have been awarded the Local TV licences for Glasgow and Edinburgh. The two services, GTV and ETV, will be delivered in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University and Edinburgh Napier University.

GTV and ETV will provide an innovative television service to the communities they serve complementing STV’s existing broadcast, online and mobile services. These new ventures will also provide media students with opportunities to work and learn in a live broadcast environment.”

Ofcom are anticipating that some of the new local television services will be live by the end of the year.