A tv community majority-owned by David Montgomery, the media entrepreneur, is to snap up the licence to function a London-focused TV station from Lord Lebedev, proprietor of the capital’s weekly Normal newspaper.
Sky Information has learnt that Native TV Ltd, which was acquired by Mr Montgomery in 2017, is near asserting a deal to purchase the London licence from London Reside.
Lord Lebedev was mentioned final month to be exploring a sale of the London Reside station he launched in 2014, with The Sunday Instances reporting that it had misplaced greater than £20m because it was established.
One media trade supply mentioned the deal would take Native TV’s share of the regionally broadcast tv market to roughly 60%.
It already has channels centered on areas together with Birmingham, Leeds and Cardiff.
The corporate’s eight current channels are broadcast to greater than 5 million UK households.
Whereas owned by Mr Montgomery, Native TV is run by Lesley Mackenzie, its chief government.
Mr Montgomery, the previous Mirror Group Newspapers government, has additionally been concerned within the public sale of The Each day Telegraph, having tabled a proposal for the right-leaning newspaper final yr.
He was reported this weekend to have met Todd Boehly, the Chelsea Soccer Membership co-owner, about collaborating on a bid.
Tim Kirkman, the London Reside managing director, declined to remark when reached by Sky Information on Sunday afternoon, whereas Native TV couldn’t be reached for remark.
