Portsmouth - Media

Media

ITV1 Meridian is the local ITV licensee. Meridian is received across the whole city from both the Rowridge and Midhurst transmitters. Portsmouth was one of the second-tier of cities in the UK to get a local TV station, MyTV, in 2001. The station later rebranded to PortsmouthTV, but its limited availability in some parts of Portsmouth had restricted its growth, and the station later went off-air as a result of the parent company becoming insolvent.

The local commercial radio station is The Breeze (formerly The Quay) on 107.4FM, while the city also has a non-profit community radio station Express FM on 93.7FM. Other radio stations based outside of Portsmouth, but received there are Heart FM, on 97.5FM, Capital South Coast (previously known as Power FM/Galaxy South Coast) on 103.2FM, Wave 105 on 105.2FM and BBC Radio Solent on 96.1FM. Jack FM (formerly Original 106 & The Coast) on 106.6FM . Patients at Portsmouth's primary hospital Queen Alexandra and St Mary's hospital in Milton also have access to local programming from charity station Portsmouth Hospital Broadcasting, which is the oldest hospital radio service in the world commencing broadcasts in 1951. London stations 95.8 Capital FM and Kiss 100 London are also received.

When the first local commercial radio stations were licensed in the 1970s by the IBA, Radio Victory was the radio service for Portsmouth, however in 1986, due to transmission area changes (to formally include Southampton) by the IBA it was replaced by a new company and service called Ocean Sound, later renamed as Ocean FM. It is now known as Heart. From 1994 (the city's 800th birthday) Victory FM broadcast for three 28 day periods over an 18 month period. This service, relaunched on the channel listings guide and 'cable radio' of the South East Hampshire area's cable television network, was renamed Radio Victory. The station went on to win a Radio Authority small scale licence, launching on the 107.4FM frequency, on 19 September 1999. It was purchased from the founders by TLRC, who, due to poor RAJAR figures, relaunched the service in 2001 as The Quay, with Portsmouth Football Club purchasing a stake in the station during 2007 and selling in 2009. The station was taken over by UKRD in the early summer of 2009.

The city currently has one daily local newspaper known as The News, which was previously known as the Portsmouth Evening News, together with a free weekly newspaper, from the same publisher, Johnston Press, called The Journal.