Government plans to create a network of independent local TV stations have been dealt another blow after it emerged Russian oligarch Evgeny Lebedev was in talks to sell the London Live channel.
The Guardian first reported that the owner of the Evening Standard and the Independent was looking to sell the five-year old channel.
Seen as the centrepiece of the local TV network, Lebedev’s advisers are understood to be in talks with That’s Media, which owns licences to 20 local TV stations, including Manchester, Cambridge and Oxford.
That’s Media has slowly built up a network by acquiring struggling channels in the network that have been allocated a prime spot on Freeview.
Last July, Ofcom confirmed there will be no further advertisements for local TV licences.
The regulator believes that to further expand the network would have an adverse impact on the economic viability of the local TV sector.
