On 8 June 2010, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and
Sport, Jeremy Hunt, outlined his plans to introduce a far lighter
touch regulation for local media outlets. These changes are
envisaged to create a new era of local media broadcasters, through
which the aim of increased localisation of services can be
achieved. Hunt highlighted the fact that there are currently six
local television stations in New York, compared to zero in
London.
In the keynote speech on the coalition's plans for the UK
media environment, various important announcements were made on
changes to the provision of local media services, namely that the
previous administration's initiative, one of five proposals
made by Ofcom in its PSB Review, on Independently Funded News
Consortia will be scrapped, after stating that such a regime would
have removed the possibility of effective local media sources for
the digital age. Also, Hunt acknowledged acceptance of Ofcom's
proposals made in November
