STV is a Scottish free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the STV Group. It is made up of the Central Scotland and Northern Scotland Channel 3 public broadcaster licences, formerly known as Scottish Television (now legally STV Central Ltd) and Grampian Television (now legally STV North Ltd) respectively.
The STV brand refers to the on-air name used by Scottish Television for much of its history - notably in the 1970s and early 1980s. This brand remained in conversational use amongst the local public afterwards.
The modern STV brand was adopted on Tuesday 30 May 2006 replacing both franchises' previous identities. The sense of continuity in the name was demonstrated when STV celebrated its 60th birthday in 2017, with special programmes broadcast on STV itself and the now defunct STV2.
STV is now the only part of the Channel 3 network which is not owned by ITV plc. The station does not carry ITV1 branding or show ITV1's network presentation except during news broadcasts, and between 6am and 9.25am, when it is replaced by the ITV-owned-and-branded national franchise ITV Breakfast.
History
On 2 March 2006, it was announced by SMG plc (now 'STV Group plc') that Scottish Television would revert to the brand name of 'STV', used from the start of colour broadcasting in 1969 until 30 August 1985, and which the station was still informally known as. At the same time, Grampian Television would also become known as STV North. The new-look branding was launched on 30 May 2006.
In January 2007, the station launched separate news services for the East and West of the STV Central region, initially as a five-minute opt out within the 6:00pm edition of Scotland Today on weeknights.
2010s
Regional news coverage was expanded again in May 2011 with the launch of separate half-hour editions of STV News at Six for the East and West, and localised late night news bulletins each weeknight.
STV were awarded local TV licences in January 2013 to operate two digital television channels in Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively, for up to 12 years. STV Glasgow launched on Monday, 2 June 2014 with an expanded schedule of local news, features and entertainment programming. STV Edinburgh launched on 12 January 2015. The two channels were later closed and merged with three other local TV licences to form a new national network, STV2, in April 2017. Existing regional news bulletins continue to air on the main STV Central service.
STV local channels
In 2013, STV won licences to launch local TV channels in Glasgow and Edinburgh. STV Glasgow launched on 2 June 2014, with STV Edinburgh following on 12 January 2015. From 24 April 2017, the city channels were rebranded as "STV2" and operated in combination with new franchises centred on Aberdeen, Dundee and Ayr. STV2 closed down in June 2018 as a result of oncoming competition from BBC Scotland.
Withdrawal of networked output
In July 2009, STV announced that it was withdrawing some networked programmes such as The Bill, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, Poirot, Lewis and a number of other high-profile ITV network dramas from its schedules, instead preferring to concentrate on programming made within Scotland. The practice of dropping networked shows had been in operation for other programmes since November 2008 when STV announced it would opt out of programmes they claimed were not performing well in their broadcast region, including Sharpe's Peril, Al Murray's Happy Hour, Moving Wallpaper, Benidorm and The Alan Titchmarsh Show. ITV's coverage of the FA Cup was also dropped.
ITV plc claimed that STV were in breach of their network agreements by making this decision and sued STV for £38 million. STV launched its own legal action against ITV plc, claiming the company was owed money and unhappy about promotional advertising of their services. The then executive chairman of ITV plc, Michael Grade claimed his company was the "victim" in the ongoing dispute.
Amid many protests, the company's chief executive Rob Woodward admitted in December 2009 that STV had made a 'major mistake' by dropping some of the networked dramas and replacing them in some cases with imported output, repeats and films. The company pledged to continue with its plan to produce more regional programming and opt out of networked output with further plans announced in August 2010.