Scottish television stations on:  
[Wikipedia]  
[Google]  
[Amazon]
Television in Scotland mostly consists of UK-wide broadcasts, with regional variations at different times which are specific to Scotland. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and
ITV networks both began broadcasting in the country during the 1950s. There were further expansions in the early 1960s with the arrival of
Grampian
Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...
,
Border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...
and
BBC2 television.
The experience of commercial expansion of television services in Scotland since has been broadly similar to that in the UK generally. Terrestrial television is available through
DTT platform
Freeview along with
various other channels. Cable services are available to limited parts of the country with
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...
, satellite television is provided by
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
and
IPTV
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...
services are available with
BT TV
BT TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT; a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of June 2019, BT TV had 1.9 million customers ...
and
TalkTalk TV
TalkTalk TV is a UK-based consumer television and video on demand service, operated by the TalkTalk Group that originally launched in 2000. In September 2012, the current TalkTalk TV was launched in partnership with YouView. Its television a ...
.
History
Television transmissions in Scotland first began on 14 March 1952 when Britain's sole state broadcaster of the time, the BBC, started broadcasting from the
transmitting station
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
at
Kirk o'Shotts using the
405-line television system
The 405-line monochrome analogue television broadcasting system was the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting. The number of television lines influences the image resolution, or quality of the picture.
It wa ...
. These early transmissions offered no significant separate content; all BBC programming came direct from London with only very occasional Scottish variation made using an outside broadcast unit. With time, BBC television in Scotland gradually accrued some limited rights to "opt out" of the UK network, particularly after the entry of the
Independent Television (ITV) network into the picture, but it was well over 60 years before the corporation allowed an autonomous BBC television channel for the country when it finally launched a still relatively limited
BBC Scotland TV service in February 2019.
ITV's
Scottish Television
Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) 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 th ...
(STV) began transmissions on 31 August 1957.
Grampian Television
Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and now named STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Highlands (except Fort William a ...
, the ITV service for the North-East of the country, was launched in the Spring of 1960.
Border Television
ITV Border, previously Border Television and commonly referred to as simply Border, is the ITV (TV network), Channel 3 service provided by ITV (TV channel), ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Anglo-Scottish border, England/Scotland border region, ...
, with its headquarters in
Carlisle, transmitting across the south of Scotland and north of England, followed suit on 1 September 1961.
BBC 2 arrived in Scotland in 1966, two years after its initial launch in London. At first this was a black and white service on 625-lines
CCIR System I
CCIR System I is an analogue broadcast television system. It was first used in the Republic of Ireland starting in 1962 as the 625-line broadcasting standard to be used on VHF Band I and Band III, sharing Band III with 405-line System A signals ...
from the Black Hill transmitter. In 1967, when BBC 2 upgraded to
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
colour across the UK, this included Scotland.
Although BBC 1 UK network programmes upgraded to colour in 1969, local output at first was still in black-and-white. STV likewise made the upgrade to colour in December 1969, and BBC Scotland's Queen Margaret Drive Studio "A" in Glasgow followed suit in 1971, one of the first of the regional BBC studios to make the upgrade.
STV, now legally known as "STV Central Ltd", is currently the largest of the three ITV network franchises in Scotland and the second oldest active franchise holder in the UK (the oldest being
ITV Granada).
Terrestrial channels
Viewers in Scotland receive seven public terrestrial television stations:
*
BBC One Scotland
BBC One Scotland is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Scotland and is a Scottish variation of the UK-wide BBC One.
For all of the time the channel is referred to on screen as ''BBC One Scotland'', sometimes us ...
*
BBC Two
*
BBC Scotland
*
BBC Alba
*
ITV (Branded
STV or
ITV1
ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...
depending on location)
*
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
*
Channel 5
BBC Scotland and
BBC Alba are dedicated channels, with
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
and
ITV being regional variants/opt-outs of British television channels.
BBC Two,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
, and
Channel 5 are UK-wide channels.
BBC Scotland
Scotland has its own BBC services,
BBC One Scotland
BBC One Scotland is a Scottish free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Scotland and is a Scottish variation of the UK-wide BBC One.
For all of the time the channel is referred to on screen as ''BBC One Scotland'', sometimes us ...
and the
BBC Scotland channel.
BBC Two Scotland
BBC Two Scotland ( gd, BBC Dhà Alba) was the national variation of BBC Two for BBC Scotland. It was broadcast via digital television and was the sister Scottish channel of BBC One Scotland and Gaelic-language BBC Alba. Unlike BBC One Scotland, ...
existed from 9 July 1966 until 17 February 2019, when it was replaced by the BBC Scotland channel. Much of the output of BBC Scotland Television, such as news and current affairs programmes, and the Glasgow-based soap opera, ''
River City
''River City'' is a Scottish television soap opera that was first broadcast on BBC One Scotland on 24 September 2002. ''River City'' follows the lives of the people who live and work in the fictional district of Shieldinch. In November 2017, a s ...
'', are intended for broadcast within Scotland, whilst others, such as drama and comedy programmes, aim at audiences throughout the
UK and further afield. Sports coverage also differs, reflecting the fact that the country has its own
football and
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
leagues and national teams, separate from those of the other United Kingdom constituent nations and other sporting interests unique to Scotland, such as
shinty or
curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...
.
Viewers on the Freeview HD platform within the BBC Scotland broadcasting area can now re-opt into the BBC network when Scotland opts out via BBC One HD, extending choice to Scottish viewers which was only previously an option for satellite and cable viewers.
ITV in Scotland
Three
ITV network
ITV is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the ol ...
stations (
ITV Border,
STV Central
Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) 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 ...
and
STV North) broadcast in Scotland. In the early 1960s, Grampian Television was created to provide commercial television services serving the Highlands and Islands, but in 1997 it was bought by
STV Group plc
STV Group plc (formerly known as Scottish Television plc, Scottish Media Group plc and SMG plc) is a media company based in Glasgow, Scotland. Beginning as a television broadcaster in 1957, the company expanded into newspapers, advertising and r ...
, owners of the longer established Scottish Television. In May 2006, both channels were re-branded "
STV" with newsrooms in Glasgow and Aberdeen retained to provide separate news services for their respective regions. Seven months later, STV launched news opt-outs for the East of Central Scotland (broadcast from Edinburgh) and Tayside & North East Fife (broadcast from Dundee). ITV Border has had a more complex position, as it also has to serve neighbouring areas across the border in England. Most of the independent television output equates to that transmitted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the exception of news and current affairs, sport, cultural and
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...
language programming.
The available
ITV network
ITV is a British free-to-air public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the ol ...
station depends on region:
*
ITV Border, branded "ITV1", which covers both the Scottish and English borderlands. It is owned and operated by
ITV plc
ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom.
ITV plc is listed on the ...
. Between 2009 and 2013 the station broadcast pan-regional news bulletins with
ITV Tyne Tees
ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire.
Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from studios at a converte ...
from Gateshead with dedicated opt-out for the Border region broadcast on weekday evenings. In 2013, separate bulletins for the Border region were restored, either broadcast live, or pre-recorded shortly before broadcast, but continuing to come from Gateshead. On 6 January 2014, the Scotland sub-region of the Border region was re-established.
[OFCOM sets out licence terms for ITV, STV, UTV and Channel 5](_blank)
, OFCOM, 23 July 2013
*
STV Central
Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) 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 ...
(formerly ''Scottish Television''), branded "STV", which is based in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and covers the
Central Belt
The Central Belt of Scotland is the Demography of Scotland, area of highest population density within Scotland. Depending on the definition used, it has a population of between 2.4 and 4.2 million (the country's total was around 5.4 million in ...
of Scotland. It is owned and operated by
STV Group plc
STV Group plc (formerly known as Scottish Television plc, Scottish Media Group plc and SMG plc) is a media company based in Glasgow, Scotland. Beginning as a television broadcaster in 1957, the company expanded into newspapers, advertising and r ...
, a company which evolved from the station, and since became solely interested in its core TV business once again. On weekdays, the station provides two separate editions of its regional news programme ''
STV News at Six'' for the West and East of the region.
*
STV North (formerly ''Grampian Television''), branded "STV", which is based in
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
, and covers
Tayside
Tayside ( gd, Taobh Tatha) was one of the nine regions used for local government in Scotland from 15 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. The region was named for the River Tay.
It was created by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, following rec ...
, the
North East and
Highlands and Islands
The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles).
The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 18 ...
. It is also owned & operated by STV Group plc, and carries the same regional programming as shown on STV Central but produces a separate regional news service, including opt outs for Tayside and North East Fife.
News programming
There have been claims that
British television news (which is the main source of news on Scottish Television) does not cater to Scottish needs: in 2005, Dr Douglas MacMillan, of the
University of Aberdeen
, mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
, established =
, type = Public research universityAncient university
, endowment = £58.4 million (2021)
, budget ...
found that Scottish news was "peripheral" compared with
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
stories. His six-month study into the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
showed 34% of all news focused on England while just 2% was dedicated to Scotland, despite having 10% of the population.