Ofcom has issued the first licences to run new local TV services to stations in Brighton and Grimsby.
Both Latest TV and Lincolnshire Living are already on the air with web-based services, and in the case of Grimsby’s Channel 7 (Lincolnshire Living), have a relay on Virgin Media cable.
The two channels will now prepare to offer their services on digital terrestrial television.
They will broadcast on a specific ‘multiplex’, a discrete amount of spectrum reserved for local TV broadcasting on DTT.
It is hoped that the transition will be made so that the first channels can be on the air before the end of 2013.
The licences will run for a period of 12 years.