Battle for ITV Border Scotland services

I believe this is the old thread here: http://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/ofcoms-report-ch3-ch5-licence-renewal-33314/


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-23315567

A political row is brewing over an impending shake-up in the ITV service in the south of Scotland.

Regulator Ofcom is set to decide between two rival options for the future of the former Border TV region.

One option would mean a weekly local programme specifically for the area - the other would see far more of STV's programmes of wider Scottish interest being shown.

Two members of the UK government are backing the return of a local programme but the Scottish government is keen to let viewers in the south see more STV programmes.

The future of the former Border TV region is one of the few areas of controversy to emerge in the process to renew the Channel 3 licences which expire at the end of next year.

Since 2009 the news service has been broadcast from Gateshead and shared, in part, with the service for the former Tyne Tees region while there have been no other regular local programmes.

ITV plans to make significant changes to the news service to make it much more focussed on the region but the question over what should happen to the rest of the regional schedule is more controversial.

There are two options.

ITV wants to produce a weekly current affairs programme focussed on local stories in the south of Scotland and Cumbria.
An alternative proposal (Option 2) to broadcast some STV programmes seen in the rest of Scotland - potentially the nightly current affairs programme Scotland Tonight.
It's argued that the second option would give viewers in the south of Scotland a service more comparable to the one provided to the rest of the country.

But the problem with it is that the extra Scottish programmes might be a turn off for Border's English viewers and that splitting the area between its Scottish and English parts could add to costs.

Ofcom is now deciding between the options after a public consultation which has now closed. Whichever is chosen, there is likely to be political criticism.

ITV logo
ITV wants a weekly current affairs programme focussed on the south of Scotland and Cumbria
In their responses, Scottish Secretary Michael Moore and his deputy David Mundell - both MPs in the Scottish part of the Border TV region - backed the idea of a new half-hour programme aimed at the whole of the TV region.

Scottish Borders Council and the Scottish government both preferred the option which could see STV's daily current affairs programme broadcast.

Mr Mundell's response said: "It is my belief that those supporting and vocally pushing for Option 2, are motivated by their personal political beliefs and their views, whilst perhaps vocal, do not represent majority opinion locally."

The Scottish government's response stated: "Only Option 2 has the capability of allowing Scottish viewers in the franchise area to see news and current affairs coverage of Scotland on a broadly comparable basis to viewers elsewhere in Scotland.

"Informing democratic debate is at the very heart of the public service broadcasting ethos and at present viewers in the Scottish portion of the franchise are short-changed by being denied access to programming on news and current affairs on the range of issue such as health, education and local government that are decided on in Scotland at the Scottish Parliament."

The Border TV region is something of a historic anomaly, broadly speaking covering the areas of Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders and Cumbria councils.

Border is now part of ITVplc which also owns all the other former regional companies in England and Wales.

STV remains a separate company.

This made the idea of simply redrawing the TV regions and giving the south of Scotland to STV problematic.

Ofcom is expected to announce its decision in the next few weeks although the improved regional news service will be introduced whichever option is chosen.

Is it really that problematic to give the old 'Border Scot' to STV? Are ITV just wanting to keep it to cause problems for South of Scotland viewers?

More likely the money from the advertisers for 260'000 viewers is the sticking point. If only tv had some proper entertainment shows.

Eh? No entertainment shows on TV? What does that have to do with anything?

That should be STV, But autospell strikes again.

And it was one of your more literate posts too!

Simple solution would be to use the Caldbeck transmitter effectively transferring the Channel 3 attribution of the
D3/4 Mux on channel 24- and
BBC-B Mux on 22-
to STV. (matching the BBC Attribution of BBC A and B.)

The Transmitter would still retain ITV Border services on the alternative D3/4 and BBC B Mux
(A reminder that the site transmits NINE muxes because of it's location)

If ITV plc are worried, they can transmit material for the South of Scotland alongside the North of England content and allow the viewer to choose which service they prefer.

All Nine Muxes are receivable in the South of Scotland, although the three Scottish muxes footprints are skewed towards Scotland and not receivable in the south of the transmitter's area.

A solution for Selkirk using the Ridge Hill 'West; model could be engineered too.

I wonder what the cost of ITV not having to produce separate 'Border' Regional News/Political programmes would be against STV gaining the 260,000 viewers mentioned above? Would STV cut 10 minutes off their 6pm Regional News programmes (so ITV wouldn't need to engage in their 'Out Of Area' plan for the proposed return of the sub-regions) in exchange for these 260,000 viewers? Would UTV cause too much a fuss if ITV/STV managed to agree something with Ofcom?

The other question I still find myself asking is why Ofcom don't seem to be questioning ITV's commitment to weekly Current Affairs programmes for it's other English Regions?

If STV to were to gain they extra 260,000 viewers, in effect they could create a new 6pm specifically for Southern Scotland.

I don't see why ITV are playing hardball over this when in effect they created this problem when they moved the news to Gateshead.

What would viewers say though if they were able to pick up Look North from the Borders? Or in fact can they already from an overlap somewhere?

I don't believe stv would create a new builtin at 6pm, stv north at least has million viewers. Make likely it would be spilt between Glasgow and Edinburgh news plus Scotland tonight.

But how many viewers does the 6pm Edinburgh bulletin get though? I wouldn't imagine it'll be that high...

Chatton's signals can be received in the Duns and Coldstream areas. When the late Sid Waddell was making his series "Waddell's World" for Tyne Tees in the early 90s one of the places visited was Wedderburn Castle, a large country house just outside Duns. Bob Johnson, when he did the weather for Tyne Tees, used to feature Greenlaw, Coldstream, Duns and Chirnside regularly on his weather maps, even subjecting them to his famous anagrams occasionally.