That's TV Solent is a local television station in The Solent region of England, owned and operated by That's TV.

Background

That's Solent is a local TV channel, that according to

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

(the UK telecoms regulator), broadcasts to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

including

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a pop ...

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufac ...

and parts of the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

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 United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census. The town ...

and

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

. 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 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 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 That's TV 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 on the Isle of Wight and covers the area around the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain; the major historic ports of Southampton and Portsmouth lie inland of its shores. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit whi ...

and Southampton Water. It broadcasts on Freeview channel 7 and is also available on

Wightfibre WightFibre is a full-fibre network operator on the Isle of Wight. WightFibre provides telephone and broadband internet services exclusively to homes and businesses on the Isle of Wight. Historically WightFibre has operated a hybrid fibre-coa ...

. 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 The ''Southern Daily Echo'', more commonly known as the ''Daily Echo'' or simply ''The Echo'', is a regional tabloid newspaper based in Southampton, covering the county of Hampshire in the United Kingdom. The newspaper is owned by Newsquest, on ...

'' 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. Later it also became available on Freeview, Freesat and Virgin Media. It is on air 24 hours a day and fe ...

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 home shopping channels.

Notes

References