Mustard TV was a local television station based in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. It broadcast to over 400,000 people, covering Norwich and much of Norfolk reaching

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are Nor ...

in the north of the county,

Dereham Dereham (), also known as East Dereham, is a town and civil parish in the Breckland District of the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A47 road, about 15 miles (25 km) west of the city of Norwich and 25 miles (40& ...

to the west and parts of south Norfolk and north Suffolk. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of regional media group

Archant Archant Limited is a newspaper and magazine publishing company headquartered in Norwich, England. The group publishes four daily newspapers, around 50 weekly newspapers, and 80 consumer and contract magazines. Archant employs around 1,250 empl ...

and was one of 19 initial local TV stations awarded licences by UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom. Mustard TV's original aim was to "redefine what people think of as local television". The channel was named as a nod to the Colman family which manufactured mustard in Norwich, although there was no business connection. The production team and studios were at

's headquarters in Prospect House, Rouen Road in Norwich. On 31 August 2017 Mustard TV broadcast its last show, having been sold to the

That's TV That's TV is a national television network in the United Kingdom, broadcasting via Sky, Freesat and Freeview. That's TV started off as the owner of a number of local television licences in several conurbations, but even though regional news ...

group. The new owner said that it would not be employing the previous Mustard staff.

History

2012

On 23 May 2012 the media regulator Ofcom extended the invitation for local operators in cities across the United Kingdom to operate a new local television service in their areas. Two rival bids were lodged - one from regional publisher

and the other from NR One which was headed up by former

ITV Anglia ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated ...

presenter Kevin Piper. On 19 September 2012 Archant was revealed as the winner of the licence, originally proposing a television service which would run from 6am until midnight each day.

2014

Mustard TV launched on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

on Channel 8 on 24 March 2014, the second of the new local television stations to launch in the UK. It offered a catch-up service on the Mustard TV website, and by the end of the year had extended its reach by transmitting on

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

cable too.

2015

The station received some controversy in its earlier years with widespread press attention in March 2015 after accidentally broadcasting an exchange between presenters Helen McDermott and

Darren Eadie Darren Malcolm Eadie (born 10 June 1975) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who is joint-manager of Leiston. As a player, he made his name as a pacy left-sided midfielder with Norwich City before later joining Le ...

where an obscene word was used. In July 2015 it experienced technical difficulties in attempting a live broadcast of a pre-season

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

friendly football match against

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

. A recording of the match went out around 90 minutes later with bosses forced to apologise for the technical hitch.

2016

On 5 April 2016, following the closure of

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

on Freeview Mustard TV and other local television stations moved from Channel 8 to Channel 7. At the start of May the station moved to broadcasting a 24-hour 'Norwich News Wire' when programmes were not on air. The station also started streaming some of its live studio programming on its YouTube channel 'Norfolk Now'.

2017

Mustard TV closed at the end of August 2017, having been sold to the

group. This would later become the TV channel That's Norfolk.

Programming

Mustard TV broadcast a wide range of local programming including news, current affairs, entertainment, culture, sports, property and cookery. The station broadcast 90 minutes of local news from Mustard TV's Norwich studio every weekday evening. These shows included: * Mustard News - airing every hour on a weekday evening; the station promised to devote roughly five times as much airtime to Norwich than the existing coverage provided by

BBC Look East ''BBC Look East'' is the name of two separate BBC regional television news programmes for the East of England made by BBC East. History The first BBC television news bulletins for the East of England began on 5 October 1959. These bulletins ...

and

* The Mustard Show - a nightly magazine show on local life, comedy, drama, game shows, culture, arts and human interest stories was one of its flagship programmes, airing at 6:30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. Presenters included NCFC football player Darren Eadie, former ITV Anglia presenter Helen McDermott,

BBC Radio Norfolk BBC Radio Norfolk is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Norfolk. It broadcasts on FM, AM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at The Forum in Norwich. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of ...

breakfast presenter Nick Conrad and

Future Radio Future Radio is a local community radio station serving the city of Norwich, Norfolk. The station is part of local charity Future Projects History Future Radio began broadcasting in May 2004 with its first 28-day Restricted Service Licence (RS ...

presenter Beth Davison. * This Week - A panel of local guests answered questions on local issues. This aired in the 6.30pm slot usually occupied by The Mustard Show. * The Pink Un Show - During the football season The Pink Un Show aired on a Wednesday evening for Norwich City fans. The show was usually fronted by The Pink Un reporter Michael Bailey, and featured a panel of guests talking about the club's performance. * Walks Around Britain - the syndicated series featuring walks from across the country all between 2 – 8 miles. * Beth's Book Club - a book panel discussion programme, presented by Beth Davison. The programme featured writing talents: Ian Rankin, Lee Childs, Ruby Wax, Ellie Griffiths, Peter May and others.

References

;Notes ;Sources

External links

* {{Local television channels in the United Kingdom 2014 establishments in England Archant Local television channels in the United Kingdom Mass media in Norwich Television channels and stations established in 2014