STV2 is no more. The broadcasting platform is to be switched off with the loss of 59 jobs, including cuts in STV news.
But the question posed is does it signal the end of local television life as we know it?
STV2 was the amalgam of television channels set up initially to cater for Glasgow and Edinburgh audiences, added to last year with licences for Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee.
But the advertising revenues required to sustain the channel didn’t emerge.
However, given arguments made for the original license were that it would maintain and develop Scottish culture, this axiomatically suggests Scottish culture will now be allowed to fall into one big homogeneous slurry heap.
The television station was a great supporter of local arts, it provided substantial coverage for the likes of theatre and gave local music a powerful platform.
It also provided work and experience for young people to learn a range of skills in journalism and production.
However, much of the content was old and recycled, such as the endless re-runs of Taggart. Much of the content looked cheap, such as My Life In Ten Pictures,
That’s not to say cheap couldn’t be cheerful. The People’s History Show had a loyal following as did the football show with Peter And Roughie, both deemed worth transferring to a prime time STV.
But for the most part, STV2 product didn’t attract major audiences. How could it with re-runs of Taggart and a reliance on screening Irish soaps? And thus couldn’t attract advertising support.
What will also be a factor in the demise of STV is the arrival in the New Year of BBC Scotland’s digital channel, which will certainly make a mark on audience share.
Now, the question arises is will the new BBC channel will attempt to cover much of the same ground as STV2 in terms of arts coverage and local feature content? And to what extent will that content be prismed through the BBC lens.
The new station will be run on a budget of £30m a year but already independent producers are wondering what hope there is for success. It’s been claimed £1000 per minute for content is proposed.
The intent of STV 2 was to reach into the heart of Scottish communities. But what’s clear is it should have left city news to the likes of the Evening Times and the Edinburgh Evening News.
Trying to be local - and force newspapers out of the picture - has resulted in disaster.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here