Scottish pres discussion Thread

BARB doesn't measure ITV1's audience in Scotland so it's impossible to tell accurately how many people are watching.

You can't assume that, say, the 16% of people watching a particular STV programme are the same 16% who would otherwise have been watching the ITV1 network programme... it just means 84% of the audience is spread elsewhere and ITV1 is, of course, one of many options.

AS a kid, the words "except for viewers in Scotland" marked the death knell for a decent night in front of the box.

But it was even worse if you lived in the north of Scotland.

I was raised in Aberdeen, so didn't get to see Joe 90. That was a Scottish Television treat, while Grampian showed The Sheepdog Trials. All found guilty, by the way.

To this day I have never seen an edition of Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade because it was never shown north of Fife. Now the agony is back: "Except for viewers in Scotland, The Sequel..."

The bitter war between STV and ITV1 means ITV's mainly English schedule is peppered with tartan programming.

STV has always fiercely guarded its regional identity and remained intensely independent, while the other ITV companies merged into one.

But is STV really depriving us of unmissable shows? Did anybody actually go out of their way to watch Martin Clunes in Doc Martin? Weren't the same old plodding storylines on The Bill becoming a tad tedious anyway?

As fewer locally-made programmes appear on what's left of regional ITV, STV bucks the trend.

Suddenly "except for viewers in Scotland" seems more appealing.

I am fed up - TOTALLY fed up with the slant and misinformation perpetuated in other Scottish media outlets in this matter.

I have just read the Scotsman opinion piece which touches on the article linked to, and again they are quoting a "12%" drop across the day... viewers "voting with their remotes" etc.

This is a completely bogus argument. The 12% reflects a drop across DAYTIME not PEAK. Aside from The Hour, there is no opting across the day.

Glen Michael's Cavalcade was never on Grampian, we had both Grampian and STV and I watched it on STV. The picture was slightly grainy at times, but still worth watching.

You can say what ever you want, but Grampain did show it, I dare say in the early 70;s, but a number of views and even Glen micheal has stated GTV has broadcasted it. Heck even Westward broadcasted the show in the late 60;s

It's not actually, it's the all-day share. TV ratings are usually reported as peak time or all day. All day, includes literally that, all hours of the day.

So, for the first 34 weeks of the year ITV has overtaken STV

STV’s audience share = 16.9%

ITV1's audience share = 17.3%

If I were to take that as gospel, you're taking about a 0.4% difference.

However I don't. I've seen the peak figures.

Yes, but after many years of outperforming the network, that's a significant drop across all hours.

There is no doubting that the regionally produced documentaries are performing well (The Scots that Fought Franco aside with it's 6% share), and good for them. However, it's the films, repeats and acquired programming that is performing abysmally as compared to the original drama / comedy served up by ITV.