UTV - From City Quays 2 onwards

I reckon Nestlé, Virgin, Sainsbury's or First Group.

OK so another company could buy STV but they'd still have to abide by itv's rules.

That's not a really attractive investment in my opinion.

Yes buying STV is basically buying a licence to broadcast the ITV schedule in Scotland. And then on top of that fund all of the Scottish PSB elements.

As has been mentioned, I wouldn't see that being attractive to anyone other than ITVplc.

Is it a matter of when rather than if , for ITV plc to buy STV. It is the last piece of their jigsaw that is loose and needs to be fixed in the eyes of ITV. All of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands are now ITV plc, only STV has stuck it out, but with UTV taken over in 2016, there must be some worries at STV at a possible take over by ITV plc.

An attractive investment is one which is profitable.

The affiliate deal is one which works for both broadcasters. Prior to the agreement, ITV Network Centre was controlled by ITV Plc anyway.

However, I believe STV can choose not to renew the deal and roll back to the previous arrangement, subject to Ofcom approval which they would get.

The problem for STV is that if you have Sky TV, Freesat or Virgin Media, you have complete access to the ITV network channel in their EPG, with ITV London provided, so any disagreements over scheduling, STV viewers can simply switch there, and ruin STV plans for a different prime time line up, if they decided once again to go down that path.

STV could get around that by launching their own audio description service (which is the reason why ITV London is available on the EPG in Scotland, as well as everywhere else).

The option to watch another region in order to get an alternative schedule is by no means new. However, I don't think STV has an appetite for a different prime time line up anyway.

As for this talk about ITV buying STV, I would be amazed if that was on the agenda at the moment or even in the foreseeable future. All analysts reckon against it, citing not only political reasons but financial. To put it into perspective, I believe STV's profits are less than the annual fee it pays ITV Plc and it has a pension deficit of around £120million. The benefits of ITV owning STV are outweighed by all the problems that would result. Far better to just keep accepting a flat fee to pay towards programming.

Contrary to what some may believe on here, ITV doesn't make acquisitions based on wanting to stamp their logo over everything.

ITV aren’t actively going after STV and they weren’t with UTV either.

If STV wanted to sell up they’d probably buy them.

ITV is hardly in a weak spot not owning STV, it’s not causing them any issues, I doubt it is anywhere near the top of their list about things to do.

I know it's tempting to compare, but the two aren't really comparable when it comes to numbers. UTV was a relatively healthy business with very little debt and a pension deficit of just £3m compared to STV's £130m.

STV just isn't attractive at the moment and the only reason to buy (vanity) would be wiped by the political storm it would create.

STV in theory could have been in that spot by now. They got a bit overexcited back in the day when they bought Virgin Radio, then a pile of newspapers. Unfortunately, they over-extended themselves and Chris Evans imploded.

As a result, they made a hastily U-turn and concentrated on their TV franchises, selling pretty much everything else off. The problem is, that included some stuff which had huge potential such as the S1 jobs (and other areas) site. STV tried to create their own jobs site further down the line with stvjobs, but it was really too late.

They have rebalanced everything and are making a decent, tidy sum every year, but aren't going to be of any consequence for any investors or potential buyers. The new people in charge look like they're going to try and address that and prioritise new productions of interest outwith Scotland itself. If they manage to turn it into a bit more of a production powerhouse then it may seem more attractive, though the pension fund issues will remain.

Strangely, while much of the Scottish media is in trouble because of the relatively small population size, making radio stations a small tack-on to bigger networks, STV may be saved because the small population base and associated troubles make it more hassle than it's worth to buy.

If ITV were interested in buying STV, it would have happened by now.

The fact that ITV has bought several other production companies in recent years, including some foreign companies, shows that they have no real interest in STV at the moment.