Oh dear! Ofcom's rejection of London Live's application to change the primetime broadcasting of local programming is a severe blow to its enthusiastic owner, Evgeny Lebedev.

I though it amazing that his London Evening Standard division responsible for launching the channel, ESTV, had the cheek to ask for a reduction in its original agreement just four months after launch.

It had made a commitment in order to win the licence in competition with four other applicants. Ofcom must have been aware that at least one of them, maybe all of them, would protest at such a radical change.

Clearly, it could prove disastrous for ESTV, although its overall investment - seen in the context of media budgets - has been relatively small.

But the problem, as plenty of critics (including me) noted beforehand, was the whole concept of local TV, especially in the metropolis.

Despite market research, and the former culture minister Jeremy Hunt's convictions about the merits of local television, there was no real demand for it.

So the audience for London Live was always unlikely to be big enough to attract advertisers, and without them there is no business model.

I happen to think that local TV is unlikely to work in much smaller cities either, but I was sure it wouldn't take off in London.

Of course, like any journalist, I want people to be better informed. I want them to consume as much news and comment as possible in order to be active citizens.

And it goes without saying that I want to see as many journalists as possible being employed in order to provide the necessary information.

But local TV was always going to be a leap in the dark without a safety net, and so it has proved at London Live.

Tim Kirkman, London Live's chief operating officer, admitted as much in late July when he said the challenge to attract advertisers had been tougher than anticipated.

That is not to say that he and the other people involved in ESTV have not given it their best shot. I just wish the money had been spent more productively elsewhere.

One definite plus point - and I guess I would say this wouldn't I, because I write a weekly column for the Standard - is the enlargement of the Standard's print run. Some 900,000 copies are now being distributed each weekday across London. That's excellent news!