The longest running local TV station in the UK will close today (31st August, 2018). Estuary TV will stop broadcasting to East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire after being bought out by rival company That’s TV.
The announcement of its closure came days after an FOI request by Grimsby Live revealed the station had received £300,000 of license fee money since its launch in 2013 for sending more than 4,000 stories to the BBC that may never have actually been used.
The decision poses an uncertain future for local TV across the UK. Since 2014, more than 30 local channels have been set up as part of former Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s vision for every major town and city to have a TV station, like the US.
After criticism of local TV’s ability to attract viewers, TV watchdog Ofcom will scrap the roll-out of any more stations over concerns about their economic viability.
At Shout! Communications we believe there is an argument for using local TV. We have placed stories on stations like London Live, which has weekly audience of 250,000 and That’s Manchester.
Smaller stations are always keen to showcase stories relevant to their audience and are far more likely to give longer air time and allow additional branding than national stations. We promote some household name brands who love getting local coverage because they can get as much branding in as they wish.
Local opportunities allow you to get more key messages across, so it’s a case of whether a client wants their message to reach the most people, or to get their key messages across with more air-time.
When clients come to us they sign an onboarding note, which asks the questions about what makes them happy. Every campaign and client are different, so we tailor the stations we approach to get the type of coverage the client wants.
If you would like to discuss how to secure the best coverage to suit your campaign, we’d love to help! Email hello@shoutcommunications.co.uk or call us on 02072407373.
