LOCAL TV Cardiff (formerly known as TalkCardiff, Cardiff TV and Made in Cardiff) is a

local television The terms local programme, local programming, local content or local television refers to a television program made by a television station or independent television producer for broadcast only within the station's transmission area or television ...

station serving

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

and surrounding areas. The station is owned and operated by Local Television Limited and formed part of a group of eight Local TV channels. The channel is predominantly hosted by Local TV reporter James Peej-Watkins.

Overview

In September 2012, the broadcast regulator

OFCOM The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

announced Made Television had been awarded a licence to broadcast the local TV service for the Cardiff area, serving a potential audience of 800,000 viewers, stretching from

Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil () is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil, daughter of K ...

in the north to

Bridgend Bridgend (; or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge over the River Og ...

in the west and Newport in the east. The licence was also contested by 'Cardiff Local TV', a group set up by the locally based technology firm Cube Interactive. Previously, a low-powered RSL station, Capital TV, broadcast to the Cardiff area from 2002 to 2009, when analogue transmissions ceased from the

Wenvoe transmitter The Wenvoe transmitting station, officially known as Arqiva Wenvoe, is the main facility for broadcasting and telecommunications for Cardiff and South Wales. It is situated close to the village of Wenvoe in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, in the Uni ...

. The station began broadcasting on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media platforms at 8pm on Wednesday 15 October 2014, a week after the launch of sister station Made in Bristol. After three months on air, Made in Cardiff claimed a weekly audience of 104,000 viewers. Since August 2015, the station has also been streaming live online via its website. On 5 April 2016, Made in Cardiff moved from Freeview channel 23 to Freeview channel 8. As of April 2016, Made in Cardiff's station manager is Daniel Glyn. Made TV's Cardiff and Bristol stations also shared a regional managing director, Chris James. In July 2016, the channel reported it claimed a weekly audience of 160,000 viewers, including nearly 100,000 for its evening news programmes and 70,000 for the nightly magazine show ''The Lowdown''. 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 Cardiff'', incorporating news, sport, current affairs and entertainment. The lead presenters were Tom Evans and Sian King. A weekly half-hour Welsh language programme, ''Made Cymraeg'', was introduced in May 2017, following the launch of Made in North Wales. On Thursday 25 May 2017, Made in Cardiff 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 Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

as part of a supply agreement with

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production company, production and broadcast syndication, distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division o ...

. 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 ''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is an American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distributed by) and ...

''). As of November 2017, the Made network simulcasts

CBS Reality CBS Reality is a European pay television channel specializing in reality-based programming, including true crime documentaries and factual entertainment. It is operated by AMC Networks International in partnership with Paramount Networks EME ...

for eleven hours a day. In November 2017, following a restructuring of the Made network's operations, ''The Crunch Cardiff'' was axed and replaced by a networked version of the programme called 'The Big Daily'. Similar in format to 'The Crunch Cardiff', the show was broadcast live from Made in Birmingham, and included regional opt-outs to local content. The programme was originally hosted by Tom Evans and Mel Crawford, before being axed a few months later. On 2 January 2018, Made in Cardiff ceased broadcasting as a sole local channel and was replaced on all platforms by a generic ''Made Television'' networked feed, including a daily three-hour block of local news programming for six of the network's licence areas, including Cardiff.Made TV splits Sky and Freeview local TV feeds
, a516digital.com, 4 January 2018

Programming

Cardiff TV is required to broadcast 37 hours a week of first-run local programming. As of February 2018, the station's sole local production is ''Cardiff Live'', a half-hour block of pre-recorded local news, sport and features airing each weeknight at 5pm on the generic ''Made Television'' networked feed. Programmes produced by the other Local TV Ltd 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, originally from

and since the start of 2023, from TalkTV, 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 Television in Wales Mass media in Cardiff Companies based in Cardiff Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom