Founder David Harvey was keen to stress a strengthening management base last week as he pointed out that, although financial projections forecast revenues of 1.2m for the first year, that figure could now come in around 1.6m.

He added that the company is already at a stage where it is not losing money . . . no mean feat for a start-up.

But the station still has to convince many ad agencies of its reach and is finding it somewhat difficult to do so without audited viewing figures. Management is in discussions with AGB Nielsen to hammer out some means of determining audience numbers, but Nielsen traditionally produces national figures.

Harvey argues that it is unfair that a channel that is locally focused should be subject to national scrutiny.

If it is, that would make its viewing figures appear low on a national scale, even though they could be strong locally. It is not clear whether Nielsen will formulate some other means of collating City Channel's viewing figures.