Matt,
You obviously know far more about this than me but could there not be an opportunity emerge from this. I'm sure Scotland has it's fair share of talent and if there was some way to tap into this and expose it then would that not be a good thing?
No denying it! Scotland has a HUGE amount of talent....
But that's not what this is about....
Replacing highly popular 'anchors' in the schedule like "The Bill" with dreich documentaries is simply driving away the core audience that already exists. Friday night; and STV's late night schedule consists of two naff American imports and the unexplainable "Night Watch" with Steve (who the F**k is he?) Scott...
Make NO mistake; STV was already struggling to hold its audience. These moves will ensure it becomes truly 5th rate....
Two things are at the heart of this... STV don't have to contribute to network programmes they don't show. So replacing relatively expensive content such as (for instance) "The Bill" with something much cheaper saves money. Admittedly a tiny amount of that goes to making local programmes... But STV are shedding staff, not hiring!!! And that's DESPITE all the pretensions as to this being about STV developing more of a Scottish identity...
Right now I probably could get you a really good Ex-STV presenter, freshly booted off the channel (despite being bloody good at her job!) for WELL under £1K ....a few years back folk like that were £5K a day IF you could get them! In the natural order of things people of that calibre just shouldn't be 'at liberty'. And while it's to my benefit that they are, that fact says more about the real state of broadcasting in Scotland than any pretentious BS trotted out by STV management...
Remember MUCH of the lost content is being blocked in by the very worst in low-rent American imports..
Now; I'm not suggesting that these dreich docos (etc.) shouldn't be made! STV have been doing this sort of thing since I was a kid; and they have their place... Clearly they serve a particular niche audience. But shoe-horning them into inappropriate slots is simply killing off the audience... That in turn is eroding the value of slots to advertisers....
I'm afraid this has NOTHING to do with creating a Scottish Identity or encouraging High Quality Production from Scotland... That can be done without disenfranchising your core audience... RTE,
which is technically a foreign network manages to do this well and has done for decades... They at least realise the value of the ITV C3 'backbone' and it's place in the structure of the programme week. Break the link between that structure and the routine activities people fit their TV viewing around and you break the habit of viewing....
STV aren't alone in turning off their audiences... Screeds of channels on Freeview et all which are more or less just a waste of electricity...
But given the position they DID have and the potential they still have... There's only one word for what they're doing. STUPIDITY!
