Local television channel London Live has ceased operation after just over ten years. The channel launched in 2014 to serve the London area. Its licence has been acquired by Local TV, which has licences for a number of other city channels, and the service has been renamed London TV. Local stations will have to apply for renewal of their licences by the end of March. Ofcom will then determine whether they should be renewed beyond the end of 2026 to then end of 2034.
London Live was launched in 2014 to serve the capital as part of a local television initiative. It was broadcast on terrestrial television, with cable and satellite services under a separate licence. Until recently it was majority owned by Lord Evgeny Lebedev, the owner of the London Standard and its predecessor the London Evening Standard newspaper.
The final news programme was broadcast on 16 January. In a statement, London Live said: “We want to thank you for following and supporting us over the last 10 years. We have loved helping to share the stories that matter in London, making sure the voices that count are heard.”
The London Live licence has been acquired by Local TV Ltd, which has eight local television licences, including those for Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, and Liverpool. It broadcasts limited local news at breakfast, lunchtime and in the evening. Between that it shows general entertainment programming, largely sourced from CBS.
Local television in the United Kingdom was part of a plan to provide dozens of city stations, backed with funding from the television licence. Many are now part of national groups and have struggled to sustain regional programming commitments.
The communications regulator, Ofcom, previously warned local channels that repeating a 15-minute bulletin does not meet the minimum requirement of an hour of local news per day.
Ofcom extended the current licences for all 34 local television providers until 25 November 2026, with the option to renew for a further eight years until the end of 2034. Licence holders have until the end of March 2025 to apply for renewal. Ofcom may only refuse a renewal application if the licensee has failed to comply with its licence conditions or would not provide a service which complied with the conditions if renewed.