Quietly and with no ceremony, there has been a significant change to the format of the STV News at 6.
An innovative format which saw the programme co-presented from both Glasgow and Edinburgh has been dropped.
There is now just one presenter based in Glasgow.
The sub-opt bulletin for the Edinburgh area remains but is presented from Glasgow.
Nothing is said on-air to draw attention to the sub-opt.
The change in the presentation technique marks a significant change in the character of the programme though.
Co-presenters John Mackay and Kelly-Anne Bishop had a warm on-screen relationship even though they were 50 miles apart.
The old format also helped deal with the traditional rivalry between Scotland’s two big cities.
It was hard to accuse STV of west coast bias with one co-presenter in Edinburgh together with a sub-opt.
Cleverly, the opening sequence and the first link were often tailored so that to viewers in the east the Edinburgh presenter appeared to be taking the lead – while viewers in the west saw the Glasgow presenter.
It was an innovative, if perhaps complex, arrangement. It will be interesting to see if the changed format affects the ratings.
The new format will certainly be easier to handle logistically.
Having said all that, the story of STV’s sub-regions is an interesting one. You can debate whether or not they are really effective.
STV only started to split advertising between the east and west of the Central Belt in the late-90s.
A news sub-opt followed around 2006.
For a period the east even had an entirely separate programme and a distinctive late-night bulletin after News at Ten.
The editorial justification is obvious but the split between the east and west of Scotland is not as straightforward as many other sub-opts.
The Edinburgh service is carried from the Craigkelly transmitter and its relays.
However some viewers in Edinburgh have their aerials directed towards Blackhill.
The Haddington relay to the east of Edinburgh takes the Blackhill signal.
Similarly a few parts of the Central Belt with more in common with Glasgow get the Craigkelly signal.
While the Edinburgh opt is definitely a boost to viewers there, the scale of the area covered by the Glasgow service makes a localised service for viewers in the west harder.
The STV West region is huge – covering, for example, the West Highlands and many of the islands off the Argyll coast.
The STV News has always had an interesting remit.
At one level, it is a regional news programme for Central Scotland. At another, it competes with the BBC to provide Scottish national news.
The STV News sometimes includes stories of importance from the rest of Scotland.
Similarly it is not always possible to neatly define a Glasgow or Edinburgh story as “local” or “national”.
Hopefully though the new format will make it cost-effective for STV to continue to tailor its output for different parts of Central Scotland.
If only a way could be found to make it cost-effective for the HD version of STV East to become available on Freesat as well as Sky.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: STV logo. COPYRIGHT: STV Group.