Bay TV Liverpool was launched in November 2011 as a video-on-demand service producing local content, winning Best Media Website at the 2013 Prolific North Awards. On 21 February 2013, Bay TV was awarded a local TV licence by Ofcom to broadcast a linear television channel in the
Liverpool City Region area including
Wigan and parts of
Cheshire. Under the initial proposals, the channel aimed to air ten hours of local programming each day, including two and a half hours of news on weekdays, and a weekly political programme. The channel began broadcasting on Freeview channel 8 on Thursday 4 December 2014 at 5.30pm, later moving to channel 7 following the closure of
BBC Three. On 23 August 2016 it was announced that Bay TV Liverpool had entered administration. The station owed a total of £451,575, with a debt to Revenue and Customs outstanding at £145,187, individual shareholder loans debts to the value of £133,800, and other “trade and expense creditors” to the sum of £152,488. A week later,
Made Television announced it had bought out the station for an undisclosed sum - the group was one of four bidders who lost the original licence award to Bay TV. Bay TV ceased broadcasting at 11pm on Sunday 9 October 2016 and reopened and relaunched as Made in Liverpool at 6pm on Wednesday 19 October 2016. The station began broadcasting on Sky and digital satellite platforms in January 2017. As of April 2017, the Liverpool station also produces local news programming for sister station
Made in North Wales, serving
Mold,
Denbigh,
Ruthin and surrounding areas. On Thursday 25 May 2017, Made in Liverpool and its sister channels began carrying acquired programming from the UK & Ireland version of factual entertainment channel
TruTV as part of a supply agreement with
Sony Pictures Television. The station simulcasts TruTV in two daily blocks from 1-5pm and from 9pm-1am (8pm - midnight on Tuesdays to accommodate ''
America's Got Talent''). As of November 2017, the Made network simulcasts
CBS Reality for eleven hours a day. In November 2017, following a restructuring of the Made network's operations, local output was cut with studio production of daily news and magazine programmes was transferred to other Made TV stations. The station's bespoke
local news programme was also axed. On 2 January 2018, Made in Liverpool ceased broadcasting on digital satellite and was replaced by a generic
Made Television networked feed featuring a daily three-hour block of local news programming for six of the network's licence areas, including Liverpool. In 2021, the station was rebranded from Liverpool TV to LOCAL TV Liverpool, with the intention that the station would become part of the 'Northern TV Network'. This was media executive and newspaper owner
David Montgomery (National World's Executive Chairman) plan to link up LOCAL TV Liverpool with the new Freeview channel 99 Manchester service and stations in Newcastle and
Leeds. In October 2023, the station was renamed TalkLiverpool as part of its partnership with Montgomery Media and
Rupert Murdoch's
News UK,
TalkTV. However, six months later, in April 2024, TalkTV closed its national broadcasting operation and the station's name reverted to Liverpool TV. The station broadcasts from the
Storeton relay transmitter which is transmitted via the
Winter Hill transmitter which also broadcast the station via a directional localised signal beam on Freeview channel 7, but is not available on satellite or cable. ==Programming==