Made TV goes national on satellite

Made TV has launched a single generic service on satellite replacing the existing regionalised service on Sky channel 117 for viewers who could previously see the Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool and Tyne & Wear channels.
The channel is carried on Sky channel 134 in Wales, replacing Made in Cardiff.

The new national channel carries a new block of back-to-back news programmes from across the Made TV Network, between 5 and 8pm, and repeated between 2:30 and 5:30am and again from 6:00am – 9:00am.
Each Made TV station that was previously available on satellite has its news shown during these hours. Made in Teesside and Made in North Wales were previously not carried on satellite, and their news programmes continue on Freeview and Virgin Media.

The cost cutting move could also allow Made TV to abandon encryption, allowing the channel to me made available to Freesat viewers. There are currently no Local TV stations on the free-to-air satellite platform.
There is currently no information on if or when Made TV will go free-to-air or join Freesat.

This could also be the start of a national ‘backbone’ service, something that was suggested from before the launch of local TV in the UK. Here local stations could take programming from a national feed and then slot relevant local programming in on Freeview. This could save money for the financially cash strapped stations across the country.