This is a timeline of the history of the British broadcaster

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is th ...

(now known as

STV Central Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the ...

). It provides the

ITV network ITV is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the ol ...

service for Central Scotland. The timeline also includes events for the whole of the merged STV channel covering Central and Northern Scotland after 2006.

1950s

* 1952 ** 14 March – Television becomes available in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

for the first time following the switching on of the BBC service on VHF ch3 from the

Kirk o'Shotts transmitting station The Kirk o' Shotts transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications site at The Hirst which lies just outside the village of Salsburgh which is near the town of Shotts in North Lanarkshire central Scotland. (Kirk o' Shotts means 'Chur ...

. * 1957 ** 31 August – At 5:30 pm, Scottish Television starts broadcasting on VHF ch10 from the newly built transmitter at Black Hill, close to the BBC's mast at Kirk o'Shotts and becomes the first ITV company to broadcast seven days a week. ** 18 September – Scottish launches a sports programme called ''Sports Desk'' which was soon renamed

Scotsport ''Scotsport'' is a Scotland, Scottish sports television programme, broadcast on STV (TV channel), STV in northern and central Scotland between 1957 and 2008, as well as on ITV Border in southern Scotland. It was first broadcast in 1957 as ''S ...

. The programme would be broadcast for the next fifty years. * 1958 ** No events. * 1959 ** No events.

1960s

*1960 ** No events. *1961 ** No events. *1962 ** May – Scottish Television's weekly listings magazine is renamed from ''TV Guide'' to ''The Viewer''. *1963 ** No events. *1964 ** Scottish is given a three-year extension to its licence. This is later extended by a further year. ** 15 August – Scottish launches '' Scotsport Results'' to provide Scottish viewers with a round-up of the day's Scottish football. It is broadcast on Saturday teatimes at around 5pm during the football season. *1965 ** The chairman of the

Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" ( ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA existed from 1954 un ...

Charles Hill pays a visit to STV's

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

studios during which he observed an edition of the popular daytime entertainment show ''The One O'Clock Gang''. He was so appalled by it, he personally axed the programme with the words ''My God, how long have you been getting away with this?''. Consequently, Scottish no longer broadcasts programming at lunchtime. ** September – The final edition of Scottish TV's listings magazine ''The Viewer'' is published. Subsequently, Scottish's listings are carried in the magazine ''

TVTimes ''TV Times'' is a British television listings magazine published by Future plc. It was originally published by Independent Television Publications, owned by the participating ITV companies. The magazine was acquired by IPC Media in 1989, whic ...

''. *1966 ** Scottish Television is listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

. * 1967 ** Scottish Television retains its franchise, despite strong competition from a consortium led by the future BBC Director General Alasdair Milne and strong indications that the company would lose its franchise. Lord Thomson is forced by the ITA to reduce his stake in the station from 80% to 25%, effectively ending the company's standing as a subsidiary of the Thomson Group. * 1968 ** August – A technicians strike forces ITV off the air for several weeks although management manage to launch a temporary ITV Emergency National Service with no regional variations. **30 August - A television relay of Black Hill opens for

Rothesay Rothesay ( ; gd, Baile Bhòid ) is the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in the council area of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It lies along the coast of the Firth of Clyde. It can be reached by ferry from Wemyss Bay, which offers an onward rail ...

on VHF ch8. **13 December - a further relay station opens at

Rosneath Rosneath (''Ros Neimhidh'' in Gaelic) is a village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It sits on the western shore of the Gare Loch, northwest of the tip of the Rosneath Peninsula. It is about by road from the village of Kilcreggan, which is sited ...

, improving reception of Scottish Television for viewers in Dunoon and the Firth of Clyde areas, on VHF ch13. * 1969 **31 January - a third and final VHF relay broadcasting Scottish on ch12 opens at Lethahill, improving reception in the Girvan and Ayr areas. ** October – Scottish starts producing programmes in colour and marks the occasion by opening new secondary studios at the Gateway Theatre in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. ** November – A major fire badly damages Scottish's Glasgow studios. ** 13 December – Scottish starts broadcasting in colour, using the 625 lines

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

system from the Black Hill transmitter on ch43.

1970s

* 1970 **Scottish launches a brand new ‘’STV’’ logo with the words Scottish Television displayed below the actual logo.TV-Live: Scottish Television
/ref> * 1971 ** 27 September - a second high-power UHF transmitter opens broadcasting Scottish Television from Craigkelly on UHF ch24. The tower, at Burntisland, improves Colour television for much of Edinburgh and parts of Fife. * 1972 **Scottish begins the construction of its new purpose-built complex in

, at Cowcaddens. **11 September – ''

Scotland Today ''Scotland Today'' is a Scottish regional news programme covering Central Scotland, produced by STV Central (formerly Scottish Television). Despite its name suggesting a national remit, the programme was actually limited to stories around STV's C ...

'' is launched, although the programme is only broadcast for ten months each year. Magazine programmes are shown during the summer break. ** 16 October – Following a law change which removed all restrictions on broadcasting hours, ITV is able to launch an afternoon service. **1 December - Colour television reception is improved south-west of Glasgow with the opening of the

Darvel Darvel ( sco, Dairvel, gd, Darbhail) is a small town in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It is at the eastern end of the Irvine Valley and is sometimes referred to as "The Lang Toon" ( en, the Long Town). The town's Latin motto, , means "Not for ou ...

UHF transmitter on ch23. * 1973 ** No events. *1974 ** The 1974 franchise round sees no changes in ITV's contractors as it is felt that the huge cost in switching to colour television would have made the companies unable to compete against rivals in a franchise battle. ** 12 December – The official opening of

's new studios by Princess Alexandra takes place. *1975 ** 23 May-9 June – A strike over the payments agreed before the government-imposed pay freeze came into force results in many ITV companies being unable to broadcast. All of the companies affected by the strike were fully back on air by the end of May, apart from at Scottish where the dispute dragged on for a further fortnight. *1976 ** 1 April – Following ITV wanting to have a Scottish soap for its daytime line-up, Scottish launches ''

Garnock Way ''Garnock Way'' was a short-lived Scottish soap opera, produced by Scottish Television for the ITV network, running from 1976 to 1979. It was replaced by ''Take the High Road'' which also featured actors Eileen McCallum, Bill Henderson, Paul ...

''. **11 June - The Torosay transmitter broadcasting on UHF ch25 opens, extending Scottish TV in colour to the Oban and Fort William areas. *1977 ** No events. * 1978 ** ''

''’s annual summer break is scrapped and consequently the programme is now on air all year round. ** 7 October – Following a 21.8% increase in profits for the first six months of 1978, Scottish announces an increase in local programming. * 1979 ** 10 August – The ten week ITV strike forces Scottish Television off the air. The strike ends on 24 October. ** Scottish ends production of soap opera ''

'' due to a lack of interest from the English companies - only one English region ( Southern Television) had ever broadcast the show, and only did so for just over one year.

1980s

* 1980 ** 19 February – The first edition of soap-opera ''

Take the High Road ''Take the High Road'' (renamed ''High Road'' from 1994 to 2003) was a Scottish soap opera produced by Scottish Television, which started in February 1980 as an ITV network daytime programme, and was broadcast until 2003. It was set in the ficti ...

'' is broadcast. Unlike predecessor ''Garnock Way'', the new soap was carried by all ITV regions and they continued to do so until the late 1990s. * 1981 ** October – Scottish Television becomes the first ITV station to launch a regional Oracle teletext service, containing over 60 pages of local news, sport and information. * 1982 ** No events. * 1983 ** 1 February – ITV's breakfast television service

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...

launches. It is a UK-wide service and therefore contains no Scottish-specific content. Consequently, Scottish's broadcast day now begins at 9:25 am. * 1984 ** 8 October – ''

'' is relaunched as a features-led magazine format with the news relegated to brief summaries before and after the programme. * 1985 ** 3 January – The last day of transmission using the 405-lines system. ** 31 August – Scottish launches a new computer-generated ident and revives the Scottish Television branding. * 1986 ** 20 October – Following considerable criticism, including from the

Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television ( ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Author ...

, the 1984 changes to ''Scotland Today'' are reversed and the programme once again becomes a news bulletin with the feature elements transferred to a new lunchtime programme called ''Live at One Thirty''. * 1987 ** 7 September – Following the transfer of

ITV Schools ITV Schools (full name: Independent Television for Schools and Colleges) was the educational television service set up in 1957 by the Independent Television Authority, broadcasting learning programmes for children ages 5 to 18 across ITV-affil ...

to Channel 4, ITV provides a full morning programme schedule, with advertising, for the first time. The new service includes regular five-minute national and regional news bulletins. * 1988 ** 13 February – ***Scottish launches 24-hour broadcasting. ***Scottish abandons in-vision continuity, apart from the overnight hours. * 1989 ** 1 September – ITV introduces its first official logo as part of an attempt to unify the network under one image whilst retaining regional identity. Scottish chooses not to fully adopt the ident although it does use it in conjunction with its own identity, which Scottish had refreshed earlier in 1989.

1990s

* 1990 ** No events. * 1991 ** October – Scottish rebrands its overnight service as ''Scottish Night Time'', and removes the overnight in-vision continuity. ** 16 October – ***Scottish retains its licence to broadcast. It bids a nominal amount (£2,000 a year, plus 2% of their annual advertising revenue) for the licence due to there being no other applicants. ***Scottish is one of the backers of GMTV which is awarded the breakfast television contract. **Scottish TV's production arm is placed into a separate company, ''Scottish Television Enterprises''. * 1992 ** No events. * 1993 ** 1 January – Scottish Television launches new idents and presentation. ** January – Scottish launches a 30-minute lunchtime edition of ''

''. ** May – '' Scotsport Results'' is axed after almost 30 years on air. * 1994 ** Mirror Group buys a 20% stake of Scottish Television. * 1995 ** September –

Flextech Living TV Group was a British television consortium originally called Flextech before becoming a subsidiary of British Sky Broadcasting, with Challenge still broadcasting. Living TV Group had several owned channels, available in the United K ...

sells its 20% stake in HTV to

. * 1996 ** June – Scottish launches a new political programme called Platform. ** July – Scottish renames itself

Scottish Media Group STV Group plc (formerly known as Scottish Television plc, Scottish Media Group plc and SMG plc) is a media company based in Glasgow, Scotland. Beginning as a television broadcaster in 1957, the company expanded into newspapers, advertising and r ...

(SMG), doing so to reflect its expansion into other aspects of the media following the acquisition of Caledonian Publishing – then-publishers of The Herald and the Glasgow Evening Times. and Scottish ** 6 October – Scottish updates its on-screen presentation. ** October –

United News & Media UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its pr ...

buys Scottish Television's 20% stake in HTV. ** 1 November –

SMG plc STV Group plc (formerly known as Scottish Television plc, Scottish Media Group plc and SMG plc) is a media company based in Glasgow, Scotland. Beginning as a television broadcaster in 1957, the company expanded into newspapers, advertising and r ...

and BSkyB launch

Sky Scottish Sky Scottish was a short-lived satellite television channel operating on the analogue service broadcasts between 6.00pm and 8.00pm. History The service was a joint venture between British Sky Broadcasting and ITV franchise Scottish Televisio ...

as a joint venture. Broadcast for two hours each evening, the channel is aimed at Scots living in other parts of the UK. * 1997 ** June – SMG buys

Grampian Television Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and now named STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands (except Fort William a ...

, the ITV contractor for Northern Scotland, for £105 million. Shortly afterwards, the company became SMG. * 1998 ** 31 May –

closes because the channel failed to meet its financial targets. ** 15 November – The public launch of digital terrestrial TV in the UK takes place. * 1999 ** 24 March – Mirror Group sells its 18.6% stake in SMG to Granada. ** 30 April – S2 launches.

2000s

* 2000 **28 February – Having decided not to adopt the 1999

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

generic look, Scottish and

Grampian Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...

launch a new on-screen logo. ** December – SMG acquires a 14.9% stake in

Scottish Radio Holdings Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) was a Scottish media company which owned 22 radio stations, and around 30 local newspapers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. History SRH had its origins in the 1970s when Glasgow was awarded the third licence for ...

. and four months later it increases its stake to 27.7%. * 2001 ** 27 July – S2 closes and consequently ITV2 starts broadcasting in Scotland. * 2002 ** No events. * 2003 **27 April – After 1,517 episodes and more than 23 years on air, the final edition of soap opera ''

'' is broadcast. **June – STV North's

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

headquarters move to new smaller studios in the city's

Tullos Tullos is an area of Aberdeen, Scotland. The area takes its name from the Vale of Tullos, which lies between Tullos Hill and Torry Hill. Tullos derived its name from a corruption of the Gaelic ‘Tulach’ meaning a hill. In this extract from ...

area in June 2003. * 2004 ** January – SMG sells its stake in

to EMAP for £90 million in anticipation of consolidation in the radio market. ** 8 January – STV launches a new political magazine programme '' Politics Now''. It replaces ''Platform'' and Grampian's politics and current affairs programme ''

Crossfire A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I. S ...

''. ** 2 February – SMG sells its stake in GMTV to

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the ...

for £31 million. ** Autumn – The lunchtime edition of ''

'' is axed. * 2006 ** 30 May – Scottish Television is rebranded as ' STV' and the rebrand is rolled out across all of Scotland, thereby consigning the

brand to history after 45 years. The area formerly covered by Grampian is now called STV North. ** STV moves from their Cowcaddens base to a new, smaller building at

Pacific Quay Pacific Quay is an area south of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. It is located at the former Plantation Quay and Princes' Dock Basin. The Princes' Dock Basin was the largest on the River Clyde when it was opened by the Clyde Navigation T ...

alongside the headquarters of BBC Scotland. * 2007 ** 8 January – STV launches separate news services for the East and West of the STV Central region, initially as a five-minute opt out within the 6:00 pm edition of ''

'' on weeknights. * 2008 ** 22 May – After more than 50 years on air, STV axes ''

'', doing so after BBC Scotland acquires highlights of the Scottish Premier League. ** 1 October – Scottish Media Group is rebranded

STV Group plc STV Group plc (formerly known as Scottish Television plc, Scottish Media Group plc and SMG plc) is a media company based in Glasgow, Scotland. Beginning as a television broadcaster in 1957, the company expanded into newspapers, advertising and r ...

. It does this because it wants to highlight its renewed focus on television. ** November – STV starts opting out of ITV programmes they claim were not performing well in their broadcast region'. ITV's coverage of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

is also dropped. * 2009 ** 23 March – ***STV relaunches its on-screen presentation.TV Live: STV
/ref> ***''

'' is relaunched as ''STV News at Six''. ** July – STV announces that it is withdrawing more ITV programmes from tis schedules, such as ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983. The programme focused o ...

'', ''

Doc Martin ''Doc Martin'' is a British medical comedy drama television series starring Martin Clunes as Doctor Martin Ellingham. It was created by Dominic Minghella after the character of Dr Martin Bamford in the 2000 comedy film '' Saving Grace''. The ...

'', '' Midsomer Murders'', ''

Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and ''Alibi''), and more ...

'', ''

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

'', instead preferring to concentrate on programming made within Scotland. **September –

claims that STV were in breach of their network agreements by making this decision and sued STV for £38 million.

2010s

*2010 ** STV plc sells off the last of its non-television assets. This helped reduce the group's debt and allowed it to concentrate on its core television businesses. ** 6 June – STV HD launches on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

and Virgin Media. **20 October –

Digital switchover The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...

in STV North (formerly the

region) is completed when the analogue signal emanating from Rosemarkie is switched off. ** 7 November – The final episode of ''

Taggart ''Taggart'' is a Scottish detective fiction television programme created by Glenn Chandler, who wrote many of the episodes, and made by STV Studios for the ITV network. It originally ran as the miniseries "Killer" from 6 until 20 Septembe ...

'' is broadcast, bringing to an end a series which had been on air for more than 25 years. *2011 ** 11 January – STV +1 launches. ** 27 April –

and STV settle their legal dispute, with the former receiving £18 million from STV. ** May – Separate half-hour editions of '' STV News at Six'' for the East and West are launched along with localised late night news bulletins each weeknight. ** 22 June –

is completed in Scotland when the analogue signals at Black Hill are switched off. ** 24 October – STV launches a 30-minute late evening news programme ''

Scotland Tonight ''Scotland Tonight'' is a Scottish news and current affairs programme, covering the two STV franchise areas of Northern and Central Scotland, produced by STV News. The programme is presented by ''STV News at Six'' Central anchor John MacKay on ...

''. It encompasses the weekly political programme '' Politics Now''. *2012 ** March – A deal is announced between ITV and the other Channel 3 licence holders which would transform its commercial relationship with them after the broadcasters negotiated new Channel 3 networking arrangements. The deal would see STV and UTV become "affiliates" of the network, meaning they would pay an up-front fee for the rights to broadcast ITV content. At the time, the licence holders paid a percentage of the Channel 3 network costs based on their share of qualifying revenue. ** April – STV's Edinburgh operation moves from George Street in the city centre to a new studio at

Fountainbridge Fountainbridge ( gd, Drochaid an Fhuarain) is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, a short distance west of the city centre, adjoining Tollcross with East Fountainbridge and West Port to the east, Polwarth to the west and south, Dalry and Haymar ...

. *2013 ** 8 April -

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

's death is announced on TV and is met with celebration *2014 ** 28 April – STV HD launches on the

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

and

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

EPGs. ** 2 June – *** STV launches the first of its local television channels – STV Glasgow. *** A new set of idents is launched. *2015 ** 12 January – STV launches its second local television channel

STV Edinburgh STV Edinburgh was a British local television channel based in Edinburgh which launched on 12 January 2015. It was owned and operated by STV Group plc in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University. The channel was closed on Sunday 23 April 2 ...

. ** March – STV is awarded three more local licenses, to cover Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee. *2016 ** No events. *2017 ** 24 April – STV merges its local channels and relaunches them as a single channel called STV2. The output includes a primetime weeknight news programme called ''STV News Tonight'' which combines news from across all of Scotland with UK and international news. *2018 ** 30 June – STV2 closes down and the channel's assets are sold to That's Media, owners of the

That's TV That's TV is a national television network in the United Kingdom, broadcasting via Sky, Freesat and Freeview. That's TV started off as the owner of a number of local television licences in several conurbations, but even though regional news ...

network of local television stations in England. The closure results in the cancellation of ''STV News Tonight''. ** 7 September – The

edition of '' STV News at Six'' ends and is replaced on the 10th by shorter opt-outs within a Central Scotland programme.Union to ballot over industrial action as almost 60 journalism jobs set to go
Hold the Front Page, 17 May 2018 *2019 ** No events.

2020s

*2020 ** No events. *2021 ** No events. *2022 ** November – STV launches ''Night Vision'', which features news, sport and weather from across Scotland. Previously, STV had broadcast

's overnight filler programme '' Unwind with ITV'' (which was branded by STV as ''Unwind with STV'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scottish Television Television in the United Kingdom by year ITV timelines