The move follows the passing into law of the Digital Economy Act earlier this year; this changed the regulations around local programming by enabling stations to co-locate and programme share within specific Ofcom-defined territories.

There are currently 33 Heart stations in the UK following a roll-out of the Heart brand to 30 local Global stations last year.

These will be reduced to 15 "centres of broadcasting excellence" by the end of the year.

For example, Heart Northampton, Heart Milton Keynes, ...