Local TV 'engages with communities'

The last of the local TV licences is about to be awarded in the next few days for Preston - with the new channels due on air in the autumn.

Chris Kerr, programme director of BAY TV in Liverpool, told the Today programme: "We've been running an internet television service for a year-and-a-half now, and we've been getting quite good feedback."

"We're going to carry stories about arts, sport, health, politics, and an awful lot of news."

"We are required by Ofcom to do a minimum number of hours of news per week, but we see it very much as being news, features, entertainment when we can afford to do it, public service information and so on."

Debra Davis, chief executive of City TV in Birmingham, said: "People are consuming an awful lot of media in other ways besides print, so I think it's an opportunity, an engagement with communities, which is really important."

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday 27 February 2013.