Press Release

Release Date: 30th September, 2010.

Looking Local today confirms its support of YouView, making it clear that it will seek to use the new platform at the earliest opportunity.

Looking Local provides over 120 local authorities and housing associations with a platform to deliver interactive TV services in the UK. We are constantly reviewing our digital strategy and looking to explore new routes for taking our portfolio of online content and services to a wider audience.

Guy Giles, Operations Manager, Looking Local, said:

"Until now the potential of taking our services direct to subscription free TV seemed out of reach. Additionally, it has not been possible for us to deliver a true 'TV' experience due to the lack of a broadband connected TV platform. As a local provider of TV services the barriers to entry have been too high. I welcome the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP's support for the development of new hyper-local TV services this week. This chimes well with our efforts to deliver improved public services to local communities.

"Our aim is to give a significant number of people access to a range of our online content and services, which are currently only available to homes with computers. YouView will help give us a much more direct route to viewers while also helping us to meet the challenge to reach out to those that are digitally excluded. We look forward to finding out more from YouView on how we can get on board."

Looking Local has been running for over 7 years and provides access to a wide range of front line public services via TV and mobile phones. Examples include access to jobs, GP appointments, bidding for social housing, health advice, library services, payments and much more. Research shows that most users of this service do not enjoy access to a PC at home, or the skills to use one. The alternative for this group of people is to access services via telephone or face to face. Looking Local is currently serving the needs of over one hundred thousand users a month, generating savings to local government of around £3m per annum. Broadening access to these services on Youview TV will only improve take-up, providing improved services to the public whilst increasing the associated savings for the local taxpayer.