Scottish Television
Scottish Television is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the second-oldest franchise holder in the UK that is still active.
STV Central broadcasts from studios at Pacific Quay in Glasgow and is owned and operated by STV Group, which also owns the Northern Scotland franchise, Grampian Television, based in Aberdeen. It produces news for the west and east halves of its transmission region along with current affairs and feature programming for Northern and Central Scotland.
Along with STV North and ITV Border, STV Central is a commercial rival to the publicly funded national broadcaster, BBC Scotland.
History
Scottish Television was founded by Canadian newspaper magnate Roy Thomson. To base the station, he bought the Theatre Royal, Glasgow from Howard & Wyndham Ltd, who became minor partners in the new venture. Thomson invited Canadian television producer Rai Purdy to become the station's first head of programming. In the months leading up to opening night, Purdy pledged that the new channel would provide "first class entertainment" and "as much cultural programming as possible" as well as allowing "Scottish talent every opportunity to develop and be seen on STV".Pre-Launch
On 24 May 1955, a letter from the Independent Television Authority advised him that on the following Wednesday a press conference would be held in the North British Hotel, Edinburgh. The press release handed out at the conference stated that the transmitting station and aerials, which Thomson would have to rent from the ITA, would be ready for service in August 1957. Roy Thomson signed the contract with the ITA on 19 June 1957. The launch of a second television channel required alterations to people's television sets and/or aerials. Older sets had to be converted with an additional tuning device, and even for newer sets which had this tuner already built-in, an additional aerial was required. With nearly half a million sets and aerials in Scotland, it was going to be a huge undertaking. When independent television began in England, everybody wanted their sets converted at the same time and radio dealers could not cope with the last-minute rush. The problem was exacerbated by a shortage of radio and television mechanics. In order to avoid similar chaos in Scotland, STV arranged a series of 21 exhibitions in the principal towns and burghs in the reception area months ahead of launch.The Exhibitions ran from Tuesday until Friday and were open from 14:30–21:30. The admission charge was 1/- for adults, 6d for children and old age pensioners. Every visitor to the Exhibition received a free copy of a 24-page Television Guide, which gave them a colourful picture of the programmes they would see on Scottish ITV. Every set in the Exhibition showed either BBC output or the new commercial programme. The latter was relayed through closed circuit from telecine equipment housed in a specially-constructed Morris Commercial vehicle, specially constructed for the exhibitions and carrying equipment valued at over £10,000. In an adjoining hall, a cinema show was staged. This showed samples of the programmes STV would be presenting, including American attractions such as I Love Lucy, Brave Eagle, and Douglas Fairbanks Presents, as well as home-grown shows Sunday Night at the Palladium and The 64,000 Question, and advertising films. Also featured was a film of local interest, taken by STV's outside broadcasting unit a few days prior to the show, showing crowd scenes and various local activities. This offered the enticing prospect of exhibition visitors seeing themselves on television and thus finding out they were already "television stars"! The Pye OB unit, which cost £37,000 and was housed in a specially constructed vehicle, was on show outside the hall. A TV camera which was on display at the STV stand proved to be a big attraction. People standing around near the camera found that their images were being projected on screens at the other end of the hall.
Thomson said that, in initial stages, he expected to produce about ten hours a week of Scottish programmes. This was at a time when, under the terms of the Television Act, they were limited to a programme schedule of 50 hours a week. "It will certainly make the Scottish station very Scottish indeed in its programme content," he said. They planned a talent show, Fanfare; a quiz programme; a play presented once a month or each alternate month, chosen from either the Citizen's, Glasgow, the Gateway, Edinburgh, or the theatres in Perth or Dundee. There would also be a series, The Tamsons, about a Scottish family — but the problem was going to be finding someone who could write this, as not many Scots were experienced in writing for television. Scotsplay was also planned as a children's programme, while In Heaven and Earth was described by Purdy as "our big cultural effort", which would "contain a bit of anything and everything culturally interesting, provocative, or entertaining"; it would run for half an hour. British news would be featured twice a day, followed by Scottish news. In July, it was announced that the Scottish actor James Robertson Justice, a Rank Organization film star, would introduce STV's opening programme, This is Scotland.
1950s
Scottish Television began broadcasting at 5:30 pm on Saturday 31 August 1957 with This is Scotland, an hour-long variety broadcast live from the Theatre Royal studios – STV was the seventh ITV franchise to launch, and the first outside the three largest regions, as well as the first to broadcast seven days a week. Scottish Television’s first sport-related programme was "Fanfare", which debuted on September 2, 1957 where, compered by Archie McCulloch, supporters of rival football club competed against one another each Monday.1960s
The company broadcast musical entertainment, variety, documentary films presented by Dr John Grierson, and Scottish sports coverage. It also sponsored Scottish Opera and televised live opera and ballet, networking more opera than similar television companies. Much of the station's early output was provided by ATV, under a ten-year deal worth £1 million per year. By 1965, ATV's senior producer Francis Essex had become Scottish's programming controller.However, the station had also gained a reputation for low budget, entertainment-driven programming. It was jokingly said that STV only owned two pieces of equipment; one telecine to show western films and another to show the commercials. Lord Thomson was also criticised, for using much of the profits generated by Scottish Television to further gain his interests in the newspaper industry, rather than reinvesting into the station.
In 1965, the chairman of the Independent Television Authority Charles Hill paid a visit to STV's Glasgow studios during which he observed an edition of the popular daytime entertainment show The One O'Clock Gang. He was so appalled by it that he personally axed the programme with the words My God, how long have you been getting away with this?.
From the launch of the station, television for schools was pioneered in association with Glasgow Corporation, and post graduate television services initiated, including surgery, in conjunction with universities. Programmes were devised for the emerging countries in the British Commonwealth, and the Thomson Foundation was created to educate and train television producers, journalists and engineers, this operated from Kirkhill House – a bespoke studio complex near Newton Mearns. Programmes from TFTC were never seen by STV's viewers, but much of STV's redundant equipment found a new home at the studios, including STV's first outside broadcast unit.
Although the early days of the ITV network were a financial gamble, the STV service soon became profitable, resulting in Thomson's claim that "running a commercial television station is like having a licence to print money". In 1966, the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange for the first time.
Scottish Television retained its franchise at the first time of asking in 1967, despite strong competition from a consortium led by the future BBC Director General Alasdair Milne and strong indications that the company would lose its franchise. In the event, Lord Thomson was forced by the ITA to reduce his stake in the station from 80% to 25%, effectively ending the company's standing as a subsidiary of the Thomson Group.
The start of colour broadcasting at the end of the decade was marked by the opening of new secondary studios at the Gateway Theatre in Edinburgh in October 1969. The following month, on 3 November, the Theatre Royal headquarters were badly damaged by a major fire started by an electrical fault, in which a firefighter, Archie McLay, died after falling through a trapdoor.
1970s
Like many franchises within the ITV network, Scottish struggled through the late 1960s and early 1970s with the recession, increased transmitter rental fees, taxation on income, a decline in advertising revenue, and the costs of converting equipment for the launch of colour television. In 1970, the company made a loss of £39,000; a warning was given that regionalism would be abandoned, and a forced merger with Grampian Television would happen, unless the chancellor reduced the levy applied on advertising revenue.By late 1971, STV's fortunes recovered after a change in taxation rules reducing the company's payments from £466,000 to £234,000, and a general increase in advertising saw profits rise to £475,000 within the first six months of 1971. A large proportion of the profits were spent on expanding the company's programming output. This was in part to address criticism of the station's output, and included improved sports coverage, new dramas by Scottish writers, and enhanced local entertainment.
With the increase in output, STV had expectations of becoming one of the major players in producing programming for the planned fourth UK television service. Managing Director William Brown remarked at the time: "One of the major factors in deciding to extend our activities, is the prospect of becoming nationally involved in the production of networked programmes for ITV2 if and when it begins".
In addition, STV were also seeking to consolidate their position to increase its partnership with foreign television stations. The company was associated with a public Israeli television company, who used STV's post-production facilities for dubbing foreign language programmes. STV were hoping to be invited to act as an advisor for commercial television in Israel.
The company started work on building its new purpose-built complex at Cowcaddens, in early 1972. Original plans were to move to the Millerston area of Glasgow, costing £2 million, but negotiations fell through in mid-1960. The Cowcaddens site was planned to be built in the late 1960s, but was put on hold because of STV's financial position. The company left the Glasgow base at the Theatre Royal in December 1974.
In 1975, a short-term strike hit the ITV network in the spring, due to a dispute over the payments agreed before the government-imposed pay freeze came into force. A 19% pay rise had been agreed between the ACTT union, and with the ITV companies in July 1974. The union alleged that £231 of this deal was still owed to its members, and should not have been affected by the pay freeze. The strike took place from 6.00 am on 23 May. At 6.00am on 26 May, when striking workers came back to work, they were locked out by management. Normal service resumed on 30 May for all ITV stations, except for Scottish Television, whose staff refused to return to work after the lockout finished on 29 May. Staff eventually returned on Monday 9 June In 1978, company profits had risen by 21.8% in the first six months of the year, allowing for an increase in local programming.