A MUCH-LOVED TV channel is shutting down this week after more than a decade of broadcasting.
The station was originally due to disappear in November but bosses have been forced to move the closure date up to Friday.
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Notts TV can be found on Freeview and Virgin Media to those in and around Nottinghamshire, as well as other parts of the East Midlands including Leicester and East Derbyshire.
The channel has mostly been a source for locally-made productions, but it has aired repeats of TV shows including documentary series Walks Around Britain and classic movies.
It’s owned by Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and run by experienced producers and journalists working alongside students.
The university announced back in February that Notts TV was not seeking a renewal of its broadcasting licence with the regulator Ofcom and would therefore close down in November when it expires.
However, the date has been suddenly pulled forward to August 29.
Bosses say the change of date was made due to the departure of several key members of staff who have since left.
“While our intention had been to continue the partnership until the end of the licence period in November, it is entirely understandable that colleagues are moving on to new opportunities,” said Professor Sarah Speight, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Nottingham Trent University.
“We are grateful for everything the team has accomplished over the past eleven years.”
The channel will air a special schedule looking back on the channel’s most popular programmes and memorable Nottinghamshire moments since it started back in May 2014.
And a final edition of its main live news and chat show Notts Today will go out at 5.30pm on Friday.
“We’re proud of the eleven years of hard work and innovation the channel has brought to local tv and online publishing – achieving lasting impact with our creativity, industry training and independent journalism,” said Chris Breese, Notts TV Channel Manager.
“Hundreds of successful careers in journalism, radio, TV and film were started by the opportunities the channel offered, and thousands of Nottinghamshire stories and people were given a platform through our programming and online publishing.”
The sad closure comes after a similar local project, London Live, was shut down at the start of 2025.
London Live, Notts TV and a slew of other local TV channels came about as part of a scheme introduced by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government back in 2011 under then-Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
London Live’s slot was taken over by a new operator after its demise, known as London TV.
MORE CHANNEL CLOSURES TO COME?
Analysis by Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun
Everyone is streaming these days so it’s no wonder linear broadcast channels are struggling.
The BBC announced in 2022 that CBBC and BBC Four would disappear as traditional linear channels in a few years and go digital only via iPlayer.
However, the pair may have had a bit of a reprieve for now, after the BBC’s head of children’s programmes, Patricia Hildago, recently said “it’s really important… that if children still need us on a linear network, we’re going to be there for them”.
When Channel 4 announced the closure of The Box and other music channels it owned in January, the broadcaster hinted that more could come.
At the time the company said it was proposing to “close small linear channels that no longer deliver revenues or public value at scale, including the Box channels in 2024 and others at the right time”.
So which could the “others” be? It really depends what Channel 4 considers “small” but its other channels include More4, E4, E4 Extra, Film4 and 4Seven.
