Jeremy Hunt reveals areas in running for local TV

More than 60 towns and cities are in the running to join the government's new era of local television services, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced.

Yesterday, Hunt published a map detailing all the areas across the UK which could "make the case" to enjoy local TV, including Aberdeen, Plymouth, Basingstoke, Malvern and Londonderry.

The map was created by Ofcom after the media regulator compiled a list of towns and cities where it is technically feasible to launch local services on digital terrestrial television, essentially Freeview.

Hunt said that the first licences will be open to bidders in "just a few months", and it is expected that the initial list will be narrowed down to around 20 contenders vying to win licences.

"These new local TV services will be a fundamental change in how people get information about their own communities and how they hold their representatives to account," Hunt said.

"There's a huge appetite for local news and information in communities the length and breadth of the country. I want people to be able to watch television that's truly relevant to them."

Hunt has long held an ambition to create a vibrant network of local TV services in the UK, which he believes will improve local democracy and provide a viable alternative to the BBC's local coverage.

He had initially planned to launch a national "spine" TV channel on Freeview for hosting the local TV services, but this approach was officially dropped last month.

Instead, the minister intends to allocate DTT spectrum, known as geographic interleaved (GI) spectrum, to local TV providers to offer services, overseen by a new licensed multiplex company.

GI spectrum is suitable for local TV because certain channels within the spectrum are not used to deliver DTT in selected geographic areas, meaning they can be used for other services.

Ofcom identified the 65 proposed local TV areas after "a detailed analysis of towns and cities which have good GI spectrum coverage from existing transmitters".

The list contains some large conurbations, such as Birmingham, Sheffield, Liverpool and Edinburgh, but it also has some notable omissions, such as Bradford, Leicester and Hull, leading to criticism that the plans do not go far enough.

Last month, local TV bidder Channel 6 put forward a different scheme using GI signal-buffering spectrum that it claimed would support "up to 200 completely independent local TV stations", but that idea does not seem to have taken hold.

Hunt intends to hold a series of summits around the UK over the next few weeks to discuss "how local TV could provide a valuable service in different communities".

As previously announced, the infrastructure costs for local TV will be met from the £25 million allocated as part of the BBC's new licence fee settlement agreed last year. A further £5m of licence fee cash will be spent annually for three years on local content.

The government hopes that the first local television licences will be awarded by Ofcom by summer 2012, with between 15 and 20 stations expected to be in operation by 2015.

Despite the current plan to allocate DTT spectrum to local TV operators, in the long term Hunt believes that local media services should be broadcast over the internet via IPTV.