[LargelyALurker]

I’ve been surprised when watching STV lately how much network content features mentions of STV. Soccer Aid last night is a good example, with the ITV and STV logos equally prominent on the shirts. 

The STV website is mentioned alongside ITV’s on competition entries too. I’m sure there are more examples. 

It seems odd to me - ITV has always been the network name, and we’ve seen ITV News and ITV Sport branding on STV since forever. I can understand the channel name, ITV1, being used alongside STV, the channel name in (central and north) Scotland, but it looks odd alongside ‘ITV’. 

Is this a fairly recent thing? I’ll admit to not being a very big ITV/STV viewer outwith local news, but it’s taken me by surprise.

[WillPS]

I’ve been surprised when watching STV lately how much network content features mentions of STV. Soccer Aid last night is a good example, with the ITV and STV logos equally prominent on the shirts. 

The STV website is mentioned alongside ITV’s on competition entries too. I’m sure there are more examples. 

It seems odd to me - ITV has always been the network name, and we’ve seen ITV News and ITV Sport branding on STV since forever. I can understand the channel name, ITV1, being used alongside STV, the channel name in (central and north) Scotland, but it looks odd alongside ‘ITV’. 

Is this a fairly recent thing? I’ll admit to not being a very big ITV/STV viewer outwith local news, but it’s taken me by surprise.

I believe it started happening as a result of this settlement in 2011: www.bbc.co.uk 

STV ends legal stand-off with ITV - BBC News
A long-running legal dispute between STV and ITV is settled amicably after the S…
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[scottishtv]

The competitions one is quite funny, as STV insisted that viewers of network shows be directed to stv.tv  to enter. This now largely redirects viewers to "Enter on itv.com"...

Competitions | STV Competitions | Win great prizes
STV has great free competitions with big prizes. Enter all our online and in-sho…
  Source: competitions.stv.tv

[nwtv2003]

Essentially I’m not sure on the ins and outs, but STV is seen more as an affiliate now, than part of the ITV Network in that regard. But for any network based things such as Soccer Aid and competitions their branding has to be as prominent. To be fair you see it on Sport coverage when a presenter says something on the lines of ‘will be shown on ITV1 and STV’.

The same principles also applied to UTV when it was still independently owned, but that ended once it was folded fully into ITV plc.

[Rdd]

To recall, under the old ITV federal system there were “Channel 3 Networking Arrangements” which governed how the ITV Network was to be run. This was a requirement of the Broadcasting Act 1990. The form of the networking arrangements included a central body, ITV Network Limited, a company limited by guarantee with no share capital of which the fifteen licensees were members, which was responsible for the ITV Network schedule.

The old arrangements were designed for 15 companies, but after 2004 there was effectively one big company (ITV plc) that effectively controlled the network. The articles of association of ITV Network Limited effectively allowed ITV plc to take decisions unilaterally as it had the majority of the votes at Council.

STV had a number of gripes: mainly how much it was paying for a schedule that it increasingly had no say in, but also the fact that ITV plc effectively adopted the ITV brand, which was supposed to be collectively owned, as if it were its own. So it started dropping network programmes, which was fine - it was only ever obliged to broadcast network news bulletins - but also adjusting what it was paying into the network budget to account for the dropped programmes, which wasn’t. IIRC FA Cup football was affected at one point most controversially.

The settlement led to the end of the old networking arrangements, replaced by a network affiliation agreement, getting rid of the remnants of the old federal structure and giving ITV plc full responsibility for running the network, with STV and UTV as “affiliates”, effectively buying the network schedule from ITV.

[WillPS]

To recall, under the old ITV federal system there were “Channel 3 Networking Arrangements” which governed how the ITV Network was to be run. This was a requirement of the Broadcasting Act 1990. The form of the networking arrangements included a central body, ITV Network Limited, a company limited by guarantee with no share capital of which the fifteen licensees were members, which was responsible for the ITV Network schedule.

The old arrangements were designed for 15 companies, but after 2004 there was effectively one big company (ITV plc) that effectively controlled the network. The articles of association of ITV Network Limited effectively allowed ITV plc to take decisions unilaterally as it had the majority of the votes at Council.

STV had a number of gripes: mainly how much it was paying for a schedule that it increasingly had no say in, but also the fact that ITV plc effectively adopted the ITV brand, which was supposed to be collectively owned, as if it were its own.  So it started dropping network programmes, which was fine - it was only ever obliged to broadcast network news bulletins - but also adjusting what it was paying into the network budget to account for the dropped programmes, which wasn’t. IIRC FA Cup football was affected at one point most controversially.

The settlement led to the end of the old networking arrangements, replaced by a network affiliation agreement, getting rid of the remnants of the old federal structure and giving ITV plc full responsibility for running the network, with STV and UTV as “affiliates”, effectively buying the network schedule from ITV.

Downton Abbey was also held back until after the settlement. I think they were showing imports including South Park to fill some of the gaps in schedules.

[gottago]

It was such a fascinating period to see STV really struggle, and frankly fail, to fill their schedules with some utter tosh while the rest of the country was gripped by hit series like Downton. ITV ended up putting Downton on ITV3 a few days after the broadcast so people in Scotland could still watch.

I remember they showed a 12 year old STV produced crime drama that no one remembered in place of some big new drama which wound a lot of people up, and I think they bought the Australian drama Underbelly to fill some gaps too. Didn't they fill the weekend daytime schedules with old STV produced kids shows as well?

There was a great thread on Digital Spy that I'll have to dig up that was full of angry Scots documenting pretty much every schedule change.

Here it is: forums.digitalspy.com 

"Not Scotland" - What are STV Playing At? — Digital Spy
Browsing the listings for the coming week, I was pleased to see a new Midsummer …
  Source: forums.digitalspy.com

I'd forgotten they'd dropped The Bill. Also gone were new episodes of Lewis, Midsummer Murders and Kingdom. They showed a 5 year old RTE drama instead!

[James2001]

They didn't show the post-2009 revamp episodes of The Bill either, but most would probably agree that was no big loss 😋

[nwtv2003]

From memory the ITV1 London Audio Description channel on Sky and Virgin Media had a bit of a ratings boost in Scotland during this period. They even dropped The Bill from the point it went out weekly.

[Torpido]

Not the same exactly but one forum there was someone who was moaning that although itv 1 and Stv were starting the 3rd series of van der balk next Sunday virgin media in Ireland still hadn't shown series 2, apparently it had got to the scenario where this person with sky only in Ireland was waiting for itv 3 on the epg in Ireland to eventually due to the lack of itv 1 on the sky guide even though itv 3 4 and be are on the epg in Ireland, so it's quite similar to what was happening when Stv were in their battle with itv, although the virgin media thing involves a different country and philosophy you can see the similarities to the Stv thing of before 2011