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 Episcopal see, See of ...
,
Norfolk. It broadcast to over 400,000 people, covering Norwich and much of Norfolk reaching
Cromer 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 (4 ...
to the west and parts of south Norfolk and north
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...
. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of regional media group
Archant 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
Archant'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 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
Archant and the other from NR One which was headed up by former
ITV Anglia 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), a ...
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 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
Helen McDermott (born 24 March 1954) is a British radio and television presenter, best known for her work at Anglia Television.
McDermott began her broadcasting career in the 1970s as a continuity announcer and newsreader for Westward Television ...
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 friendly football match against
West Ham. 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 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
That's TV 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 and
ITV Anglia
* 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 14 ...
breakfast presenter Nick Conrad and
Future Radio 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