London Live, the local TV channel launched by Evgeny Lebedev’s media company, has reduced its losses to £6m and is now targeting breakeven in 2017.

The TV business, which has gone through a major restructuring and content strategy shift, is understood to have made an operating loss of about £6m in the year to the end of September.

ESTV, which is thought to have made about £3m in revenues in the year to the end of September, has just started to ramp up its programming strategy, launching into Sky’s Soccer AM territory with a new Friday night show Jimmy Bullard Kicks Off.

The channel, which Lebedev originally pledged to back with £15m over three years, is aiming to reduce losses to just £3m in the year to the end of September 2016.

Equally, the forecast is to also double revenues to about £6m next year.

If the business can achieve the targets, it is on track to reach break even by the end of its financial year in September 2017.

“I am really pleased with the progress we are making with over 100% year-on-year growth behind audience and revenues,” said Tim Kirkman, chief operating officer at London Live. “The team is working really well together and the channel is now reaching more Londoners than well established channels like Sky news, Sky Atlantic and Comedy Central.”

ESTV is also targeting the London channel slot for BBC3 if it becomes an online-only channel. Taking over the slot will greatly improve its positioning on Virgin’s cable TV platform in particular, with a jump from slot 159 to 106.