''STV Sports Centre'' was a Scottish regional sports stand, covering the two STV franchise areas of Northern and Central Scotland. The strand was produced the STV News department in Glasgow (

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 ...

), with contributions from STV North's news team in Aberdeen. Until May 2011, ''Sports Centre'' aired two different programmes: ''Friday Night Football'', broadcast on Friday nights at 10:30pm, and ''Magners League Rugby'' – airing on Sundays straight after the late '' ITV News'' bulletin. Short ''Sports Centre'' news bulletins also aired on Monday – Thursday nights at 10:35pm during the late regional bulletins from '' STV News''. The first series of ''STV Sports Centre'', launched just two years after the long-running ''

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 ...

'' was axed, featured interviews, special reports, analysis, a preview of the weekend's football and competitions. Gerry McCulloch and Sheelagh McLaren were the main co-hosts, Stefani Dailly and Chris Harvey acted as relief presenters in their absence.

Friday Night Football

The Friday night programme was relaunched on 13 August 2010 as the hour-long ''Friday Night Football'', focusing on previews and analysis of the Clydesdale Bank Scottish Premier League and featuring action from midweek

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

and

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

fixtures. The series was introduced as part of a two-year production and archive services deal between STV and the SPL. A few weeks into the new series, STV decided to shorten the programme to the original 30 minutes. The programme was axed in June 2011.

Sports Centre Rugby

''Sports Centre Rugby'' was broadcast on Sunday nights after the late '' ITV News'' bulletin. It featured highlights from the weekend's

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places part ...

games with extended coverage of matches involving

Glasgow Warriors Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and became t ...

and

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh pl ...

. Originally broadcast as '' STV Rugby'', the programme was introduced in September 2009 after a deal was reached between the Celtic League Association, Scottish Rugby and STV, following the closure of

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

' UK operations. The ''Sports Centre'' strand was discontinued in 2011, with highlights of the new 2011–12 rugby season, now known as

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

airing under the '' STV Rugby'' banner once again.

References

External links

* * {{col-end 2010 Scottish television series debuts 2011 Scottish television series endings 2010s Scottish television series ITV Sport Sports television in Scotland STV News 2010s British sports television series