The BBC Trust has rejected plans to launch a localised broadband TV news service. The project that would have cost some £68 million over five years had come in for severe criticism from local newspaper groups that feared the BBC would use the licence fee to provide a service that was in direct competition to their own plans.

The Trust’s decision comes at a time when ITV is reducing its commitment to regional television news provision. Like their national counterparts, regional newspapers are increasingly using video as part of their website offer.

In 2005 and early 2006 the BBC ran an interactive news pilot in the West Midlands. Ten minute news bulletins from five local areas ran on interactive television and on demand from the BBC website