Big Centre to become Made in Birmingham
The digital television station covering the Black Country has been bought by a rival network for an undisclosed sum.
Walsall-based Big Centre TV is to be re-branded as Made in Birmingham following its acquisition by Made Television, which was one of the original bidders for the licence for Birmingham and the West Midlands in 2012.
Big Centre, which went on air in February last year, was co-owned by former ATV presenter Mike Prince and Wolverhampton-born Chris Perry.
Leeds-based Made Television has existing local TV channels in Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds and Tyne and Wear and is set to launch in Liverpool on October 12 and Teeside at the end of this year.
The deal for Big Centre is still subject to Ofcom approval.
If the go ahead is given Made Television will cover news across the West Midlands including Coventry and Stoke-on-Trent and will operate from the existing studios at The Goldmine Centre, Lower Hall Lane.
The switch to Made in Birmingham will take place on November 1 and add more than 3.2 million potential viewers to the 'Made in' network.
Made in Birmingham will be available via Freeview 7, Virgin 159 and Sky 117.
Chief executive Jamie Conway said: "We are investing significantly in our city TV portfolio in order to build our reach in some of the UK's most exciting and economically active regions. The addition of Birmingham to our network brings an established platform in the UK's second city and enables the Made TV network to offer viewers highly engaging and relevant content and advertisers local, regional and national targeting, at scale."
Made TV has won awards for its programming, including, recently, two Yorkshire RTS awards.
Mr Conway added: "There is an increasing demand from the public for less homogenous London-centric programming. The feedback we receive from our viewers is that there is a growing disconnection between people living in major cities outside of the capital and the nature of the programming content that is being presented to them. London is not necessarily the barometer for the rest of the UK. Our experience shows us that there are strong regional differences that should be celebrated and we are delighted to be pioneers of this new approach to television broadcasting.'
Made in Bristol, Made in Cardiff, Made in Leeds and Made in Tyne and Wear broadcasting 24 hours a day and focus on news, sport and entertainment in each city.
It was awarded is first two licences to broadcast local TV services in the Bristol and Cardiff areas in 2012.
Made in Bristol was the first of the company's channels to launch in October 2014
All four Made TV stations are required to broadcast 37 hours a week of first-run local programming.
