The Caldbeck relays in the South-West of Scotland (including two in South Ayrshire....Pinwherry and Ballantrae) would not need to be fed from Darvel which would be technically very difficult. A separate feed already exists at Caldbeck but is currently a duplicate of ITV Border. Historically, the South West of Scotland has been worst served of all areas in the UK. Until the late 70s the only BBC 1 available on UHF, including from the relays across the region, was the North East of England service. BBC 2 Scotland wasn't available to the area until the early 90s. And, until DSO, the Freeview service for Dumfries and Galloway carried BBC North East and Border England, Scottish variants were only available on analogue.
I live less than an hour's drive from the capital of Scotland. The local police service is Lothian and Borders Police...the fire service is Lothian and Borders, both based in Edinburgh. Scotland has its own legal system, education system, its own parliament etc etc yet my "local" service on channel three gives me news from North Yorkshire and Teesside! Border Scotland was a compromise, maybe not a perfect one...introduced because of dissatisfaction with access to Scottish-interest programming. Now I'm a foreigner in my own country.
I think it's important to distinguish between the quality and relevance of regional news in the South of Scotland and questions about whether viewers in the Border region are missing out on the Scottish national picture.
On regional news, it's obvious the situation is difficult. Just as it is in the former Westcountry region, the former Central East region and various other parts of England which lost sub-opts. Surprisingly though the viewing figures across the Border/Tyne Tees regions have apparently held up - at least according to Ofcom, though I have not seen any BARB ratings.
On the Scottish national picture surely it was ever thus with Border - the situation was brought into sharp focus with devolution but did it really get any worse when the enlarged Border TTTV programme began? I'm sure you know about the arguments going all the way back to 1960 about whether Selkirk should have gone to STV.
I cannot help but wonder how many viewers in the Border region would actually prefer STV though - and how much the idea of giving the south to STV is really more of a poltical point by people sympathetic to the SNP, or at least Scottish nationalism generally, but who don't watch much commercial telly. Arguments about the legal system and the established church are irrelevant to a day's entertainment on a mainstream commercial channel. And in news they reflect the kind of issues far more likely to be dealt with on Reporting Scotland and BBC Scotland's other output than on STV News or the rest of the station's current output. Are viewers in the Border region somehow missing out bon Scottish life because they can't watch Postcode Challenge and The Hour but can watch all the superb ITV1 dramas which STV doesn't show on 103 rather than 993?
Interesting hypothetical. Imagine if Grampian had actually been bought by Carlton Or Granada and ended up in ITVplc like Border while STV had remained independent.
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