Local TV Bristol (typeset as LOCAL TV Bristol) is a local television station serving

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and surrounding areas. The station is owned and operated by

Local Television Limited Local TV Limited (formerly Made Television) is a local television network in the United Kingdom, operating eight stations serving the Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Liverpool, North Wales, Teesside and Tyne and Wear areas. The stations a ...

and forms part of a group of eight local TV stations.

Overview

In September 2012, the broadcast regulator Ofcom announced Made Television had been awarded a licence to broadcast the local TV service for the Bristol area, serving a potential audience of around 330,000 viewers. The company was unopposed in bidding for the licence. The station began broadcasting on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media platforms at 8pm on Wednesday 8 October 2014 - the first of Made TV's stations to be launched. After three months on air, Made in Bristol claimed a weekly audience of around 168,000 viewers. The advertising section of the Made in Bristol TV website shows the channel now receives an average of 91 viewers per week. Since August 2015, the station has also been streaming live online via its website. On 5 April 2016, Made in Bristol moved from Freeview channel 8 to Freeview channel 7. In February 2017, a revamp of the station's local output led to the launch of a flagship two-hour live magazine show on weeknights, ''The Crunch Bristol'', incorporating news, sport, current affairs and entertainment. On Thursday 25 May 2017, Made in Bristol and its sister channels began carrying acquired programming from the UK & Ireland version of factual entertainment channel

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows. The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that fo ...

as part of a supply agreement with

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainme ...

. The station simulcasts TruTV in two daily blocks from 1-5pm and from 9pm-1am (8pm - midnight on Tuesdays to accommodate '' America's Got Talent''). As of November 2017, the Made network began simulcasting

CBS Reality CBS Reality is a European television channel broadcast in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. History CBS Reality was launched as Reality TV on 1 December 1999 as a joint-venture between UPCtv and Zone Vision. In 2005, Liberty Global, owner of U ...

for eleven hours a day. In November 2017, following a restructuring of the Made network's operations, ''The Crunch Bristol'' was axed, local output was cut and studio production of daily news and magazine programmes was transferred to other Made TV stations. On 2 January 2018, Made in Bristol ceased broadcasting on digital satellite and was replaced by a generic ''Made Television'' networked feed featuring a daily three-hour block of local news programming for six of the network's licence areas, including Bristol.Made TV splits Sky and Freeview local TV feeds
, a516digital.com, 4 January 2018 In January 2022, OFCOM approved a request by the channel to close its Bristol offices and move permanently to a remote production model implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, with content sent electronically to Local TV's broadcast centre in Leeds for playout.

Programming

Bristol TV is required to broadcast 37 hours a week of first-run programming.Ofcom allows six local TV stations to cut back on local programming, news and current affairs
Press Gazette, 8 October 2015 As of February 2018, the station's sole local programme is ''Bristol Live'', a rolling four-hour block of pre-recorded local news, sport and features airing each weeknight from 5-9pm. A half-hour block also airs on the generic ''Made Television'' networked feed on digital satellite each weekday evening at 5.30pm. Programmes produced by the other Made TV stations also air on the channel along with acquired programming from independent producers and other broadcasters around the UK, including the thrice-daily programming blocks from

- airing from 9-11am, 1-5pm and 9pm-2am.

References

External links

Official website
{{Local television channels in the United Kingdom Local television channels in the United Kingdom Television channels and stations established in 2014 Mass media in Bristol Organisations based in Bristol