If the planned changes to STV’s news service go through, the former Grampian region will effectively become a sub-opt.
More perceptive journalists and commentators have noted that the boundary between STV’s two services is dictated purely by transmitter coverage areas.
So Fife is split between the two and there are examples of towns and small cities which would arguably be better off in the other editorial area.
It is tempting to ask why the bulk of Scotland needed two separate ITV licences in the first place.
Ever since it went on the air in 1957, STV has had a tendency to present itself as a Scottish national broadcaster.
Its initial franchise area – the footprint of the Blackhill transmitter – stretched from the Ayrshire coast to just north of Dundee.
This covered the vast bulk of the population but a relatively small proportion of the landmass.
Interestingly in 1960 the ITA proposed building a transmitter between Perth and Dundee to improve reception there. Presumably this would have been a relay of Blackhill. It was never built.
However by then the ITA had decided to give a separate company, Grampian, the franchise to broadcast on transmitters being built for Aberdeenshire and the area around Inverness.
This was in line with the ITA policy to try to increase the number of companies.
For the same reason Border and Westward came on the air. There were legitimate arguments that their transmitters could have been allocated to neighbouring established companies.
And this was one reason why the doomed Teledu Cymru came into being too. It proved unviable for multiple reasons, paving the way for a takeover by TWW and the West and Wales dual region which officially existed until a decade ago.
Grampian was a different story.
After a shaky start, it soon proved hugely popular in its heartland areas and was profitable.
Grampian was one of the ITA’s golden boys. A much-loved local service perfectly in tune with its core audience.
STV in the 60s was anything but the golden boy.
Some of its local output was personally derided by the ITA chairman Lord Hill. And while hugely popular with the public, within creative circles in Scotland it was not uncommon to think STV could do much better.
It would have been unthinkable in the 1967 franchise round for fundamental changes which would simply have put Grampian out of business. There was simply no appetite for a franchise covering central and northern Scotland.
Interestingly nobody competed against Grampian for the licence.
By then, the Angus transmitter had turned Dundee and Perth from an STV fringe into a Grampian heartland.
By 1980, STV had improved markedly even if it still had critics. Meanwhile Grampian was seen as one of the most ambitious of the small companies. So the idea of merging the two licences never came up.
The 1991 auction was based on the existing regional structure across the UK.
It might be arguable that one company covering all of Scotland – including the Border area – could have been big enough to have had a stronger network presence. It could have been required to provide separate local news and programmes for the north.
I do wonder though whether this might have come to pass if STV in the 60s had been well thought of by the regulator. A new Scottish broadcaster created by a merger of the previous franchise holders. Afterall, the ITA came up with this sort of solution for London.
But all this is history. For now, enjoy what will almost certainly be the final weeks of STV North.
Ofcom’s consultation on the proposals runs for another 3 weeks.
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FEATURE IMAGE:
PICTURED: 1970s Grampian TV logo. COPYRIGHT: STV Group.
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