Scottish broadcaster STV is given the green light to reduce regionalised output, but with conditions attached to its main evening news. An existing anomaly for satellite viewers looks set to be resolved in the process.
- STV North service reduced to segment in main 6pm bulletin
- Backlash from viewers and politicians
- Cuts will allow STV output to be harmonised across all platforms, including satellite
STV, the holder of the Channel 3 licence in central and northern Scotland, has been given Ofcom approval to close sub-regions serving Dundee and Edinburgh and share a single news programme outside of peak hours.
In practice, the current four regional versions of STV on linear TV will be reduced to two.
After a fierce backlash from viewers and politicians, original plans to combine the entire STV News at Six – and reducing the regional versions of STV to just one – have been replaced by a compromise solution.
From this summer, STV News at Six will be introduced from Glasgow across the entire STV broadcast region. 70% of the programme will include content relevant to viewers in all regions. For the remaining 30%, the programme will split, with viewers seeing news relevant to their part of the STV region. This will become the last remaining unique output for the north of Scotland, the former Grampian TV region.
ITV has similar arrangements in parts of England, where in larger broadcast regions, part of the 6pm bulletin is split into smaller sub-regions.
STV will continue to present news output from Aberdeen, with Glasgow remaining the main site. Sites in Dundee, Edinburgh and Inverness will be retained as newsgathering hubs.
Financial pressures
STV blamed the move on financial pressures and a decline in viewers watching traditional linear TV broadcasters. But opponents disagreed, saying STV’s interim financial returns (published in January 2026) did not indicate that STV is in a financial crisis and that STV’s decision to invest around £500,000 in a commercial radio station undermined its financial case for the proposed changes. They also claimed the rationale for STV’s proposals was short term financial challenges rather than changing audience habits.
Rufus Radcliffe, CEO, STV commented:
The changes Ofcom has approved to our licences will enable us to continue serving viewers with the high-quality, trusted national and regional news they expect from us. Crucially, this will be sustainable for our business and will be accessible on air and across all the digital platforms viewers now expect.
Ofcom says its approval “will allow STVto continue to serve audiences with high-quality regional news.”
How the change will solve Freeview and Freesat anomaly
Not all viewers have been able to access all four regional versions of STV on every digital TV platform.
The imminent reduction in STV regions will harmonise what viewers and users of STV’s news output can access. All of STV’s viewers will see the same content on channel 3 or 103 on their TV service, without having to switch to access local content.
The smaller sub-regions serving Dundee and Edinburgh were never available in HD on Freesat or Freeview. This situation persisted into 2026, despite HD becoming the default for most viewers. STV had an agreement with Sky to carry all of its HD regions on satellite. However, due to technical reasons, Dundee and Edinburgh sub-regions remained encrypted and unavailable to Freesat receivers. Only STV North (Aberdeen) and STV Central (Glasgow) are available on Freesat in HD.
For this reason, Freesat still relies on STV broadcasting a free-to-air standard definition copy of STV Dundee and Edinburgh and inserted on channel 103 in these postcode areas.
On Freeview HD (digital terrestrial TV), the infrastructure was never regionalised to cater for sub-regions. Affected viewers had to switch to SD to watch news specific to Dundee or Edinburgh.
Cutting the regional versions of STV will reduce the cost of distributing services – it can instantly save on broadcasting legacy SD on satellite. STV also avoids the future cost of supplying multiple regional versions to newer streaming TV services. STV was also technically able to show different adverts in each region – but streaming services allow alternative means of targeting audiences.
No change in southern Scotland
For viewers in the south of Scotland, there are no changes. Despite occasional talk about consolidating Channel 3 across all of Scotland, ITV continues to supply a bespoke “Border Scotland” service for the south.
By: Marc Thornham | Image: STV