That's Solent is a local television station on the south coast of England, owned and operated by

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 ...

Background

That's Solent is a local TV channel, that according to Ofcom (the UK telecoms regulator), broadcasts to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

including Gosport, Fareham and parts of the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, ...

and Winchester. Ofcom granted a licence to That's Solent on 14 August 2014 with a commencement date of 26 November 2014 and the licence, subject to conditions, will remain in force until 25 November 2025. The original plan was for That's Solent to be launched on 26 June 2014, however this was postponed until the 22 October 2014. The station finally went live on 26 November 2014. In March 2016, the station was placed on notice by Ofcom over persistent technical issues in its programming, along with its sister stations,

That's Manchester That's Manchester is a local television station serving Greater Manchester. It is owned and operated by That's TV and broadcasts on Freeview channel 7 from studios at The Flint Glass Works in the Ancoats suburb of Manchester. Overview Before t ...

and That's Oxfordshire. In July 2018, former That's Solent journalist Dale McEwan reported his own experiences of working for the station. He listed poor pay and exhausting hours among his concerns. He also revealed that That's Solent sent 1,207 stories to the BBC in year one (November 2014 to November 2015) but the BBC used only 114 (9.4% of stories), equating to a cost of £1,315.79 per story. The National Union of Journalists in Scotland said it was "deeply concerned" by McEwan's revelations and news that

was launching five stations in Scotland.

Company

That's Solent Limited was licensed by Ofcom in 2012 after a bidding process. That's Solent Ltd is owned by SIX TV Ltd, trading as That's TV, with That's Media Ltd as the ultimate parent company.

Broadcasting and reception

That's Solent is broadcast from the

Rowridge transmitting station The Rowridge transmitting station is a facility for FM radio and television transmission at Rowridge on the Isle of Wight in southern England. It currently has a tall guyed mast, owned and operated by Arqiva (previously National Grid Wire ...

on the Isle of Wight and covers the area around the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay t ...

and

Southampton Water Southampton Water is a tidal estuary north of the Solent and the Isle of Wight in England. The city of Southampton lies at its most northerly point, where the estuaries of the River Test and River Itchen meet. Along its salt marsh-fringed wes ...

. It broadcasts on Freeview channel 7 and is also available on Wightfibre. The studios are based in Cosham, Portsmouth.

Programming

The channel features a Monday to Friday evening news programme called ''Solent Headline News''. It also broadcasts a talk show ''Talk Solent'' which features discussion of local news and stories making the headlines. The channel is backed by Newsquest and Johnston Press, who own the '' Southern Daily Echo'' and Portsmouth's '' The News'', who will provide the local news content for the channel. In 2017 That's Solent simulcast

Talking Pictures TV Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage-film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky channel 343, but later also became available on Freeview, Freesat, and Virgin Media. It is on air for 24 h ...

during the day, but following the expiry of this agreement at the end of the year, the channel started to screen a mixture of public domain films and cartoons from the Timeless catalogue in its place. This ended in February 2019 and daytime hours are now given over to simulcasts of the TJC and

Ideal World Ideal World is a British TV shopping channel, broadcasting on Freeview, Satellite, Cable and online, with transactional websites, broadcast from studios in Peterborough. History Ideal World has its origins in the 1980s as a mail order compan ...

home shopping channels.https://www.a516digital.com/2019/02/local-channels-give-way-to-teleshopping.html

Notes

References