This is a timeline of local television in the United Kingdom. This refers to stations transmitting to a small area such as a city or part of a county, and not to larger regions covered by ITV and BBC regions.
1970s 1972 The UK's Minister for Posts and Telecommunications authorises five experimental community cable television channels. The first to launch is Greenwich Cablevision.
1973 Sheffield Cablevision, The Bristol Channel and Swindon Viewpoint launch.
1974 March – The final community station, Wellingborough Cablevision, launches.
1975 14 March – After less than two years on air, The Bristol Channel closes. 24 March – Wellingborough Cablevision closes.
1976 2 January – Sheffield Cablevision closes when the funds run out. Greenwich Cablevision closes as a full time service although programming made by volunteers keeps the station on air in a restricted form until the early 1980s. Swindon Viewpoint’s experimental phase ends when EMI decided to pull out of funding the service. However, the channel continues after it was sold to the public of Swindon for £1.
1977 No events.
1978 No events.
1979 No events.
1980s 1980 April – Regular programming on Swindon Viewpoint ends when funding dries up. but continues intermittently for the next decade with programmes made by volunteers.
1981 Radio Rental Cable Television launches the UK's first pay-per-view movie channel, 'Cinematel', for cable viewers in Swindon. As well as showing movies, the channel also broadcasts some local programming, including one-off documentaries and shortly after a live news-magazine format programme, called Scene in Swindon launches. Also provided is a local teletext service, with pages about film information, horoscopes, recipes, local bus times and job vacancies.
1982 No events.
1983 No events.
1984 No events.
1985 Swindon's cable service is rebranded as Swindon Cable and its news programme is renamed as part of this move and becomes Focus on Swindon. The channel increases the programme's frequency from twice a week to three times a week.
1986 4 February – Thorn EMI sells its stake in Swindon Cable to British Telecom and the new owners axe Focus on Swindon and other local programming and replaces it with bought-in content.
1987 No events.
1988 Swindon Cable's TV channel is relaunched as Swindon's Local Channel. This sees the return to the service of local news, sport and one-off documentaries.
1989 No events.
1990s 1990 No events.
1991 No events.
1992 No events.
1993 No events.
1994 30 November – Associated Newspapers launches a rolling news service for London called Channel One. It is only available on cable and only in some areas.
1995 L!VE TV launches the first of its local television channels. Out of a planned network of around 20 channels, only a few make it to air.
1996 1 February – Channel One launches in Bristol and Bath. Also in 1996, a channel covering Liverpool launches.
1997 No events.
1998 4 September – Channel One announces the closure of its channels in London and Bristol and the sale of its sole operation in Liverpool. 25 September – After less than four years on air, the two Channel One channels close.
1999 27 May – MATV Channel 6 begins broadcasting to the Asian community in Leicester on UHF Channel 68 (frequency 847.25 MHz - Horizontally polarised) from 27 May 1999 until late 2009. 6 June – The Oxford Channel begins broadcasting. 17 October – C9TV (Channel 9 Television) launches as a local television station channel in Derry. 5 November – L!VE TV closes and so do its local channels.
2000s 2000 14 February – Channel M begins broadcasting as a RSL station, available free-to-air on terrestrial in parts of Greater Manchester.
2001 May – Channel Six Dundee starts broadcasting. The Oxford Channel is sold to Milestone Group and is relaunched as Six TV.
2002 July – Channel Six Dundee stops broadcasting. 30 October – Channel One Liverpool shuts down. 31 October – Solent TV starts broadcasting to the Isle of Wight.
2003 No events,
2004 9 February – Belfast local channel NVTV starts broadcasting.
2005 No events.
2006 No events.
2007 C9TV stops all new programme production with much of the station's transmission time now consisting of simulcasts of Sky News. 16 April – Channel M launches a breakfast show Channel M Breakfast. 24 May – Solent TV stops broadcasting.
2008 No events.
2009 C9TV stops broadcasting after ten years on air. April – Six TV stops broadcasting after a decade of broadcasting to the Oxford area. 27 April – Channel M's then-chief executive Mark Dodson announces that the station was looking to make 41 redundancies from its 74 staff and restrict weekday live programming from four programmes (totalling six hours of output, including a breakfast show Channel M Breakfast) to one three-hour news magazine programme, broadcast between 4pm and 7pm, in order to cut losses.Axe falls on more than half of Channel M staff , Press Gazette, 27 April 2009 The new live programme, Channel M Today launches on Monday 13 July 2009.
2010s 2010 March – Channel M Today ends. 29 of the station's 33 staff were made redundant. The station goes on to broadcast a mix of archived programming, original output from Salford University and simulcasts of Euronews and Real Radio North West alongside some new programming from independent and third party producers.Channel M to move to Salford and plans new productions , How Do, 19 March 2010 5 October – UTV HD launches, but only on Virgin Media.
2011 No events.
2012 16 April – Channel M closes after 12 years of broadcasting. The station's owners, GMG Radio, said UK government plans for localised television services would not allow the station to run a commercially viable service in the future.Manchester's Channel M axed, BroadcastNow, 16 April 2012 Local programming and ended several months earlier resulting in a schedule consisting of simulcasts of Real Radio North West and Euronews and acquired programming from The Community Channel. 10 May – Ofcom invites bids for local TV services in 34 areas of the UK. August – 57 applications were received to provide these services. October – Belfast local channel NVTV stops broadcasting ahead of digital switchover but it continues to stream its programming online. 23 October – At just after 11.30 pm, Digital switchover is completed in the UK when analogue television signals in Northern Ireland are switched off.
2013 13 March – Ofcom announces that 14 more areas had been selected to invite bids for local television services, in addition to re-advertising the previously un-awarded Swansea and Plymouth locations. However many of the licenses are not awarded. 26 November – Estuary TV launches on Freeview, becoming the first Local Digital Television Programme Services to launch.
2014 24 March – Mustard TV begins broadcasting to the Norwich area. 31 March – At 6.30pm, London Live begins broadcasting. 27 May – Notts TV begins broadcasting. 2 June – STV launches the first of its local television channels – STV Glasgow. 28 August – Latest TV begins broadcasting to the Brighton area. 23 September – Sheffield Live TV begins broadcasting. 29 September – NVTV is relaunched following the channel being awarded a 12-year local TV licence by Ofcom. 8 October – Made in Bristol begins broadcasting. 15 October – Made in Cardiff begins broadcasting as Cardiff's local television channel. 6 November – Made in Cardiff begins broadcasting. 12 November – Made in Tyne & Wear begins broadcasting. 26 November – That's Solent begins broadcasting. 4 December – Bay TV Liverpool begins broadcasting on Freeview. The channel had been on air since 2011 when it had launched as a video-on-demand service.
2015 12 January – STV launches its second local television channel STV Edinburgh. 28 February – Big Centre TV begins broadcasting. 19 March – STV is awarded three more local licenses, to cover Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee.STV wins new local TV licences in Aberdeen, Dundee and Ayr, BBC News, 19 March 2015 17 April – That's Oxfordshire begins broadcasting. 31 May – That's Manchester begins broadcasting. 18 August – That’s Cambridge begins broadcasting. 24 August – That’s Lancashire begins broadcasting to the Preston and Blackpool areas of west Lancashire.
2016 Following the closure of BBC Three, the local stations move from Channel 8 to channel 7 in England and Northern Ireland, and from channel 23 to channel 8 in Scotland and Wales. April – Ofcom gives London Live permission to reduce the amount of local shows that it has to broadcast at peak time to one hour per day.London Live gets green light to reduce new peak-time local shows 12 July – That's Swansea Bay begins broadcasting. October – Bay TV stops broadcasting at 11pm on Sunday 9 October 2016 and reopens as Made in Liverpool at 6pm on Wednesday 19 October 2016.Liverpool local TV service prepares for re-launch, a516digital.com, 3 October 2016 the change follows Bay TV entering administration six weds earlier. The station owed a total of £451,575, with a debt to Revenue and Customs outstanding at £145,187, individual shareholder loans debts to the value of £133,800, and other “trade and expense creditors” to the sum of £152,488. November – Big Centre TV stops broadcasting to Birmingham at midnight on Friday 4 November 2016 and reopened and relaunched as Made in Birmingham at 6pm on Tuesday 8 November 2016. The change takes place following Made Television, which was unsuccessful in bidding to run the franchise in 2012, purchase of Big Centre TV.Big Centre TV acquired by rival network 18 months after launch, Birmingham Mail, 4 October 2016
2017 30 March – Made in Teesside begins broadcasting. 19 April – Cardiff TV's flagship news bulletin Cardiff News is broadcast for the final time. The programme is replaced by a mixed bulletin of local and national news produced at Made TV's headquarters in Leeds. 24 April – STV merges its local channels and relaunches them as a single channel called STV2.New channel STV2 to launch in April, stv.tv, 10 April 2017 The change sees STV launch a primetime weeknight news programme called STV News Tonight which combined news from across all of Scotland with UK and international news. this day also sees local TV beginning in other areas of Scotland including Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee. 26 April – Local television comes to north east Wales when Made in North Wales begins broadcasting. May – That's Thames Valley begins broadcasting to the Reading area of Berkshire. 23 May – That’s Hampshire begins broadcasting. 25 May – The Made channels begin carrying acquired programming for the first time, from the UK & Ireland version of factual entertainment channel TruTV as part of a supply agreement with Sony Pictures Television. The stations simulcast TruTV in two daily blocks from 1-5pm and from 9pm-1am.Made Television reveals all-new summer line up , Made Television, 25 May 2017TruTV on Made , Made Television, 25 May 2017 26 June – That’s York begins broadcasting. 11 July – KMTV (Kent) begins broadcasting to Maidstone and Tonbridge. 19 July – That’s Salisbury begins broadcasting. 25 July – That’s Carlisle begins broadcasting. 1 August – That’s North Yorkshire begins broadcasting to the Scarborough area. 2 August – That's Surrey begins broadcasting. 31 August – Mustard TV broadcasts its last show, having been sold to the That's TV group. It is replaced by That’s TV Norfolk. November – Following a restructuring of Made network's operations,Jobs to be axed at Made in Birmingham TV station, Birmingham Post, 26 October 2017 local programming is cut and studio production of daily news and magazine programmes is centralised at Made's Leeds and Birmingham stations. Also, the Made channels begin simulcasting CBS Reality for 11 hours a day. 29 November – That's Norfolk begins broadcasting.
2018