Two very different cities by the sea , Brighton and Grimsby , have now been united as the first places to host local TV services following new enabling legislation from UK regulator Ofcom. In a statement issued this week, director Bill Smith said: "At last Brighton and Hove will have its own television station with its own studios in the heart of the city."

He concluded by saying: “If it is good enough for Benghazi it’s good enough for Brighton!”   The Latest TV bid got accepted almost by default as there were no rival bids at all. Obviously, OFCOM (the Independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries which dishes out the licences) took care to peruse the application and applied all the right due diligence tests.

No doubt the presence of 3 MP’s, local senior politicians ect in the list of supporters helped. The real test will be when the station is turned-on which, in turn, depends on the proposed real investors coming up with the money and who they are.

The application form asks about ownership: who controls and who owns the body corporate (e.g. company) applying for this licence, and on what basis this control and ownership is achieved. In answer to this, the applicant states: “ Latest Homes Ltd is a strategic partner of Latest TV Ltd (the applicant, incorporated April 2012 as a private limited company), an independently funded, self-sufficient legal entity once investment and advertising revenues are established. We have investors lined up and all investment is wholly dependent on being granted the local broadcast licence for Brighton & Hove, with the exception of the confirmed investment by Latest Homes Ltd.”

The application goes on to states: “ The proposed investors are Latest Homes Ltd, Michael Holland, Catherine Smith, Lord March (Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara) and William Knight.”

A significant support will come from Public-i Group, who currently stream some of the Council’s public meetings, and will partners for current affairs and news provision. It is understood that the Council will also be providing some seed-funding.

 

Currently a taster of the kind of programming and style can be seen of Latest TV http://thelatest.co.uk/brighton/category/tv/brighton-lights/ It is due to start Sept 2013.

 

No doubt, the citizens of Benghazi will be glued to their TV set-box (if they are allowed to do so…..).

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