In September 2012, the broadcast regulator OFCOM announced Made Television had been awarded two licences to broadcast local TV services in the Bristol and Cardiff areas. Three months later, the company was granted a third licence to serve the Newcastle, Sunderland and Gateshead areas, followed in February 2013 by a licence for the Leeds area. In November 2013, the company gained a fifth local TV licence to serve the Middlesbrough and Teesside areas. Made in Bristol was the first of the company's channels to launch at 8pm on Wednesday 8 October 2014, followed a week later by its sister station in Cardiff. Made in Leeds began broadcasting on Thursday 6 November 2014 and Made in Tyne & Wear launched six days later. The stations launched an on-demand service, OnView, in March 2015 followed in August by live streaming. In 2016, the company bought two independently run local TV stations - Bay TV Liverpool, shortly after it went into administration in August, followed by Walsall-based Big Centre TV in October. Bay TV was reopened and relaunched as 'Made in Liverpool' at 6pm on Wednesday 19 October 2016, followed by the relaunch of Big Centre as 'Made in Birmingham' on Tuesday 8 November 2016. Two further stations launched during the spring of 2017 - Made in Teesside for the Middlesbrough area on Thursday 30 March 2017 followed by Made in North Wales for Mold and surrounding areas on Wednesday 26 April 2017. On Thursday 25 May 2017, all Made channels began carrying acquired programming from the UK & Ireland version of factual entertainment channel TruTV as part of a supply agreement with Sony Pictures Television. The stations simulcast TruTV in two daily blocks from 1-5pm and from 9pm-1am. As of November 2017, the Made channels began simulcasting CBS Reality for 11 hours a day. In November 2017, following a restructuring of the Made network's operations, local programming was cut and studio production of daily news and magazine programmes was centralised at Made's Leeds and Birmingham stations. Around forty staff across the network were reportedly made redundant. On 2 January 2018, Made Television ceased broadcasting its localised services in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool and Tyne & Wear on digital satellite. They were replaced by a single, generic Made Television feed featuring a daily three-hour block of local news programming. Made in Cardiff ceased broadcasting on all platforms and was replaced by the generic network feed. Local Television Limited's headquarters are at the Leeds Media Centre in the Chapeltown area of Leeds, with studios and offices based at Gas Street Basin in Birmingham, Abbey Wood Business Park in the Filton suburb of Bristol, Elgin House in Cardiff city centre, the Toxteth TV studios in the Toxteth suburb of Liverpool and the David Puttnam Media Centre at the University of Sunderland. Local newsrooms are also located in Middlesbrough and Wrexham. Playout and presentation for the network is run from Made Television's headquarters in Leeds. On 19 August 2018, Made Television rebranded as Local Television Limited and all sub stations were renamed according to their city. The company's official trading name is still registered as Made Television as of October 2018.
Programming
All Local TV Ltd stations produce a rolling block of pre-recorded local news, sport and features airing each weeknight. Each station's block airs each weekday for up to three or four hours. For example, Bristol Live airs each weekday from 5-9pm while North Wales Live airs from 6-9pm.
Cardiff Live, a half-hour block for Cardiff, airs at 5pm on weekdays on the Made Television networked feed. The networked feed also carries a half-hour version of the rolling blocks for Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Tyne and Wear.
In addition, the stations simulcast CBS Reality from 9-11am, 1-5pm and 9pm-2am each day and also air acquired programming from other broadcasters, independent production companies and local TV stations around the UK.
