The Newsroom

News UK TV

New TV channel from News UK (December 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
MI
TheMike
Rupert Murdoch's News UK has received an Ofcom licence for a channel called "News UK TV".

The licence is for cable and satellite platforms
http://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/radiolicensing/html/tv/cs/tlcs103693ba1newsuktv.htm

There is currently no Freeview licence for the channel.

According to an article in The Guardian, News UK TV is in a race with rival GB News for a spring launch.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/dec/01/rupert-murdochs-news-uk-tv-channel-given-approval-to-launch
BR
Brekkie
Glad it's not on Freeview.
LL
London Lite Founding member
I wouldn't be surprised if it uses the same graphics set as talkRADIO.
GL
globaltraffic24
If they’re in a genuine ‘race’ against GB News then you can expect them on Freeview as well. The Guardian article seems to suggest GB News already has a slot ready on Freeview. Do we know which channel they’re getting? I’m also aware that UKTV seems to have taken ownership of the CCXTV channel number, but is there any connection to all of this, or am I just going mad joining too many dots?!
MI
TheMike
There is no HD capacity left on Freeview at the present time. COM7 is full and is time limited. PSB3 is a bit tight too.

235 is Al Jazeera
236 likely GB News as it's already got some capacity lined up (first come, first served)
So 237 if it makes it to Freeview
JA
JAS84
Contracts up? Whose?
BR
Brekkie
Horrible thought but as a limited hours service could they potentially look to do a deal with the remnants of the Local TV network and try and get on 7/8 on Freeview.
JA
JAS84
Horrible thought but as a limited hours service could they potentially look to do a deal with the remnants of the Local TV network and try and get on 7/8 on Freeview.
That's TV and the former Made channels maybe, but London Live is almost certainly a no-go, considering it's owned by another newspaper publisher.
GL
globaltraffic24
We've inadvertently raised an interesting point with the local TV licenses. I'm guessing the requirements for local output are now so low that they could quite easily get away with it? For example, London Live become GB News or News UK TV, with a talkshow or news show using London branding? The same for Manchester, Liverpool, etc. They could in-effect do talk-style format shows with the local backdrop. Commercial radio gets away with it in a lot of areas. (The national GHRadio having a national breakfast show from Liverpool, which counts as local content for example)
GO
gottago
We've inadvertently raised an interesting point with the local TV licenses. I'm guessing the requirements for local output are now so low that they could quite easily get away with it?

I think the fact that CBS Reality was able to buy a chunk of primetime on many of these channels (do they still do this?) shows that it's already possible for another service to buy airtime with the local channel maintaining its lacklustre local service and for them to get away with it. I expect they'd keep their branding and you'd just have News UK heavily promoting their hours on channel 7 in all their publications. It would certainly give them a hell of a lot more exposure than GB News right at the arse-end of the EPG.

I reckon this is definitely what they're going to do. The fact that it's only on a few hours a night, they've only got a satellite/cable license and they're going to aggressively compete against GB News. Buying time on the local channels are an ideal solution... sadly.

Newer posts