Swansea Bay celebrations for successful media bidders

There's a big new name on the Swansea Bay media landscape ... and it's one the good folk at Swansea Sound and The Wave can be very excited about.
The Government has today named Wales Live as the winning bid to run an independently funded news consortium (IFNC) pilot projects in Wales. The Wales Live bid featured the two local stations under the banner of parent company UTV.

Meanwhile, Llanelli-based independent TV production company Tinopolis is part of a similar success story for Scotland.
Wales Live is a collaboration between Swansea Sound/The Wave owners UTV and North Walian publisher NWN Media.
Michael Wilson, managing director of UTV Television , said: “What a fantastic achievement for the Wales Live team!.
"We put our hearts and souls into winning this bid. With our partners NWN Media, we look forward to delivering a fresh and authoritative news service to the whole of Wales across TV, online and radio with the current ITV Wales News Team.
"The process is still on-going and we remain fully committed to moving forward on contracts."

The IFNCs will receive a total of £47m in Government funding over two years to provide local news content across the web, mobile and other new platforms, along with the TV slot currently occupied by ITV regional news. Funding comes from a £130m under-spend in the licence fee.
Wales Live will take over the ITV Wales news service - although a Tory Government could spell trouble for the whole IFNC scheme.
Government decision-makers said the winning bidders "understood the implications of convergence, demonstrating how television, local newspapers, the internet, local radio could work together in new and interesting ways."
They said UTV had a "clear vision for an innovative community-based approach in conjunction with citizen journalists and its newspaper partner, NWN Media."
Reserve bidder for Wales was Tinopolis, with a consortium featuring Swansea University, Bay Radio, the South Wales Evening Post, the South Wales Guardian, ITV journalists and others being left out in the cold.