STV

About STV

STV is Scotland's commercial television channel: the holder of the Channel 3 licences for Central and Northern Scotland, broadcasting a mix of ITV network programming and distinctive Scottish output including the STV News bulletins. Owned by STV Group plc and headquartered at Pacific Quay in Glasgow, it is a unique survivor in British broadcasting — the only part of the ITV network not owned by ITV plc, and the last remnant of the old regional structure in which each ITV station was independently owned and run.

The STV brand dates back to 1957, when Scottish Television began broadcasting as the ITV franchise for Central Scotland, founded by the Canadian newspaper magnate Roy Thomson. The modern STV was created on 30 May 2006, when Scottish Television and Grampian Television — the ITV franchise for Northern Scotland — were united under the single STV identity. Broadcasting from Glasgow, with major operations in Aberdeen, the channel serves viewers from the Borders to Shetland with a schedule that blends network hits such as Coronation Street and Britain's Got Talent with Scottish news, current affairs and sport.

History and Launch

STV's story begins on 31 August 1957, when Scottish Television went on air as the ITV contractor for Central Scotland. The franchise had been secured by Roy Thomson, the Canadian newspaper magnate later ennobled as Lord Thomson of Fleet, who won the Independent Television Authority contract in May 1955. Scottish Television quickly became a fixture of Scottish life, and the "STV" name — used on air from the start of colour broadcasting in 1969 — remained in colloquial use long after the station formally adopted the Scottish Television name in 1985.

Northern Scotland received its own ITV service on 30 September 1961, when Grampian Television launched from Aberdeen, serving the Highlands and Islands, Aberdeen, Dundee and the north-east. In 1997, Grampian was bought by STV Group (then SMG plc), the owners of Scottish Television, bringing both Scottish ITV licences under common ownership.

On 2 March 2006, the company announced that Scottish Television would revert to the STV brand it had used for much of its history, becoming STV Central, while Grampian Television would become STV North — with the single STV identity serving both licences. The rebrand took place on 30 May 2006. In 2017, STV celebrated its 60th birthday with special programmes marking six decades since Scottish Television's first broadcast, underlining the continuity between the 1957 station and the modern channel.

The company also ventured into local television: awarded Ofcom licences for Glasgow and Edinburgh, it launched STV Glasgow on 2 June 2014 and STV Edinburgh on 12 January 2015, later expanding to Aberdeen, Dundee and Ayr. The city channels were rebranded as STV2 in April 2017, but the network closed on 30 June 2018 following a strategic review, after struggling to build sustainable audiences.

Ownership and Funding

STV is owned by STV Group plc, the Glasgow-based media company listed on the London Stock Exchange. STV Group owns the two Scottish Channel 3 licences — legally STV Central Ltd (the former Scottish Television) and STV North Ltd (the former Grampian Television) — and operates the channel as part of the ITV network under affiliation arrangements with ITV plc.

As a commercial public-service broadcaster, STV is funded by advertising revenue. Its position is unusual: it is the only ITV network licensee not owned by ITV plc, which means it does not use ITV branding, idents or network trails, instead maintaining its own distinct on-screen identity. STV Group has diversified beyond broadcast television into content production through STV Studios and digital streaming through the STV Player, reducing its dependence on traditional television advertising.

Programming and Flagship Shows

STV's schedule combines the ITV network's biggest programmes with Scottish-made output. Network shows airing on STV include the soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale, entertainment formats such as Britain's Got Talent, The X Factor in its heyday, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and Saturday-night staples, alongside ITV's drama premieres and sports coverage. This network programming forms the backbone of the schedule and delivers the channel's largest audiences.

The channel's Scottish output centres on news and current affairs. STV News at Six is the flagship early-evening bulletin, with separate editions for the North (from Aberdeen, including an opt-out for Tayside and North-East Fife), Glasgow and the West, and Edinburgh and the East. Scotland Tonight is the channel's late-night current-affairs programme, offering Scottish political analysis and debate. STV's production arm, STV Studios (formerly STV Productions), has made network programmes for the whole UK, most famously the long-running detective drama Taggart, which aired on the ITV network from 1983 to 2010, and the literary adaptation Rebus.

Sport has been part of STV's identity, with the channel covering Scottish football and producing sports programming for its regions. The former STV2 city network carried additional Scottish output, including the news programme STV News Tonight and the entertainment show Live at Five, before its closure in 2018.

News and Current Affairs

News is the heart of STV's regional identity and its most important public-service contribution. STV News broadcasts separate bulletins for Northern Scotland, Glasgow and West Central Scotland, and Edinburgh and East Central Scotland, ensuring that viewers across the country receive news relevant to their area. The flagship STV News at Six competes directly with BBC Scotland's Reporting Scotland, and the rivalry between the two bulletins is one of the defining features of Scottish broadcasting.

Scotland Tonight provides in-depth Scottish current affairs, covering Holyrood politics, the independence debate and the issues shaping modern Scotland. The channel also carries network ITV News bulletins and has a strong record of covering Scottish elections, referendums and major national events. During the STV2 era, the company expanded its news output with additional bulletins, though these ended with the channel's closure.

Audience and Ratings

STV is one of the five main channels in Northern and Central Scotland, occupying the Channel 3 position on electronic programme guides — channel 3 on Freeview across its regions. Its audience is built on the twin pillars of ITV network programming, which delivers mass audiences for soaps, entertainment and drama, and its Scottish news bulletins, which consistently rank among the most-watched programmes in Scotland.

STV News at Six regularly attracts audiences of several hundred thousand viewers, making it one of the most-watched regional news programmes in the UK. Network shows such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Britain's Got Talent deliver STV's largest audiences, often exceeding a million viewers in Scotland. The channel's distinct Scottish identity gives it a loyalty among viewers that the network ITV brand does not always command north of the border.

The former STV2 city network, by contrast, struggled for viewers: its viewing share in Scotland in 2017 was just 0.21 per cent, and programmes such as STV News Tonight averaged audiences of under 2,000 — figures cited by chief executive Simon Pitts when the closure was announced in 2018.

Broadcast and Streaming Availability

STV broadcasts free-to-air across Central and Northern Scotland. On Freeview it occupies channel 3 in standard definition in all its regions, with high-definition availability including channel 103 in the central west. It is also available on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat. (Viewers in the Scottish Borders receive ITV1 from the ITV Border region, which is owned and operated by ITV plc.)

The STV Player is the company's streaming service, offering live streaming of the STV channel — restricted to viewers in the STV regions — alongside catch-up programming and a growing library of box sets and STV Studios productions. STV HD, the high-definition simulcast, launched on 6 June 2010. The channel's programmes are also available internationally through distribution deals struck by STV Studios.

Cultural Impact

STV's cultural significance in Scotland is difficult to overstate. For nearly seventy years, through its incarnations as Scottish Television, Grampian Television and STV, it has been the commercial voice of Scottish broadcasting — the channel that covered Scotland's news, told Scotland's stories and reflected Scottish life back to itself. Generations of Scots grew up with its idents, its presenters and its programmes.

Taggart, produced by Scottish Television for the ITV network, became one of the most successful British detective dramas of all time, its Glasgow setting and dour detectives beloved by audiences across the UK and around the world. Take the High Road, the rural soap set in the fictional village of Glendarroch, ran from 1980 to 2003 and was a daytime institution. The channel's news bulletins have covered every major moment in modern Scottish history, from the devolution referendums to the independence referendum of 2014.

STV's survival as an independent ITV licensee makes it a living link to the original vision of ITV as a federation of regional broadcasters — a structure that has otherwise vanished from British television. Its distinct branding, its refusal to adopt the ITV1 identity, and its Scottish news operation are all assertions of a separate broadcasting identity that continues to resonate with viewers.

Sister Channels

Within the ITV network, STV's counterparts include ITV1 (branded as ITV1 in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and operated by ITV plc), UTV in Northern Ireland, and ITV's digital channels ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and ITV Quiz. STV carries much of the same network programming as these channels but maintains its own branding and regional output.

Within STV Group itself, the channel's siblings are STV Studios, the production arm making programmes for broadcasters across the UK and internationally, and the STV Player streaming service. The company's former local television network, STV2, closed in June 2018. Together, the broadcast channel, the studios and the player form STV Group's three-pillar strategy for the streaming era.

Recent Developments

STV Group has pursued a strategy of diversification in recent years, growing STV Studios into a significant UK production business and expanding the STV Player beyond its traditional broadcast footprint. STV Studios, headquartered in Glasgow with an office in London, produces drama, factual and entertainment programming for all the UK's terrestrial networks as well as major satellite and cable channels, and announced a two-year development deal with Primal Media in 2019.

The STV Player has evolved from a catch-up service into a broader streaming destination, carrying STV's live channel and an expanding library of content. The company continues to invest in its news operation, maintaining separate newsrooms in Glasgow and Aberdeen to serve its two licence regions. As the only independent ITV licensee, STV remains a distinctive voice in British broadcasting — a Scottish channel for Scottish viewers, nearly seventy years after Roy Thomson's Scottish Television first took to the air.