That's TV...that's all folks?

Local TV service "That's TV" is rumoured to be closing down its main channel 7/8 service. The channel has already been removed from Virgin Media and Freesat with the Sky service expected to end tomorrow.

The Manchester based company operates 18 local services across the UK, including taking on the STV2 local services in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The service began out of the then Conservative government's plan to launch more local TV channels, with most of the services launching in 2014 and 2015.

Following allegations of staff mistreatment in 2018 and several other scandals that followed, the network significantly reduced its local programming quota, with local programmes now taking up a mere 15 minutes in the daily schedule. The schedule is now mostly filled with either low quality music videos or low quality sitcoms from the 1970s, complete with the questionable content you'd expect of shows from that period.

The broadcaster has also launched several spinoff channels, mostly on Sky and Freeview, with a few of them only receivable in the Greater Manchester area. None of them have any regional content.

So it makes us wonder, is local TV finally dead? Is there a need for local TV in the age of social media and instant information? And, from a commercial perspective, are advertising slots on local TV profitable any more?

It doesn't seem that long ago that That's Manchester was filled with local news and other programming of interest to people in the area. Nowadays the best you'll get is a ticker displaying when the Metrolink tram to Bury departs Manchester Piccadilly. Or if its even departing at all.

Is local TV dead?

• Yes
• No