Timeline of television in Scotland facts for kids

Welcome to a timeline showing how TV in Scotland has grown over the years! From the first signals to today's many channels, let's explore the exciting journey of Scottish television.

Television in Scotland: A Timeline

The 1950s: TV Arrives

• 1952
  • 14 March – TV signals first reached Scotland! This happened when the Kirk o'Shotts transmitting station started broadcasting.
  • 17 August – The Kirk o'Shotts transmitter began working at full power, making TV signals even stronger.
• 1955
  • 23 April – The Scottish Cup Final was shown live on TV for the very first time.
• 1956
  • A new TV company, Scottish Television (STV), won the right to broadcast in central Scotland. They were chosen from three companies who wanted the job.
• 1957
  • 16 August – TV came to the Moray Firth area when the Rosemarkie transmitting station was switched on.
  • 30 August – BBC Scotland started broadcasting a short five-minute news bulletin on weekdays and a sports summary on Saturday afternoons.
  • 31 August –
    • At 5:30 pm, Scottish Television (STV) began its broadcasts!
    • The Black Hill transmitting station also started working for STV's launch. This station later became the main one for all channels in the area.
  • 18 September – STV launched a sports show called Sports Desk, which soon became famous as Scotsport. This show was on TV for the next fifty years!
• 1958
  • 7 May – The BBC started a popular variety show called The White Heather Club, which aired until 1968.
  • 22 December – TV expanded to the far north of Scotland when the Orkney transmitter was switched on.

The 1960s: More Channels and Colour

• 1960
  • August – Another new TV company, Grampian Television, won the right to broadcast in North East Scotland. Seven companies had applied for this.
  • Border Television also won the right to broadcast in the area near the English-Scottish border.
• 1961
  • 1 September – Border Television began broadcasting. Around the same time, the Selkirk transmitting station started sending TV signals to south east Scotland.
  • 30 September – At 2:45 pm, Grampian Television went on air! The Durris transmitting station also started working to provide TV signals in the Aberdeen area.
• 1964
  • 20 April – The main BBC channel in Scotland was renamed BBC 1 Scotland.
  • 15 August – STV launched Scotsport Results to give Scottish viewers updates on football scores every Saturday afternoon during the football season.
• 1965
  • The head of the ITV network, Charles Hill, visited STV's studios in Glasgow. He was so surprised by a show called The One O'Clock Gang that he personally stopped it!
• 1966
  • The Angus transmitting station was built, making TV reception better in the Dundee area.
  • BBC Two started broadcasting in Scotland for the first time from the Black Hill transmitter.
• 1967
  • Scottish Television kept its broadcasting license, even though there was strong competition.
• 1968
  • 1 April – BBC Scotland's main national news programme, Reporting Scotland, started.
  • August – A strike by technicians forced ITV channels off the air for several weeks.
• 1969
  • October – STV started broadcasting in colour! To mark this, they opened new studios in Edinburgh.
  • 3 November – A big fire badly damaged STV's Glasgow studios.

The 1970s: New Shows and Studios

• 1971
  • 1 September – Border Television began broadcasting in colour.
  • 30 September – Grampian Television celebrated its tenth birthday by starting colour broadcasts.
  • The Craigkelly transmitting station began carrying all three channels, making reception better in the Edinburgh area.
• 1972
  • Scottish Television started building a brand new, purpose-built TV complex in Glasgow.
  • 11 September – STV launched Scotland Today, a news programme.
• 1974
  • 12 December – Princess Alexandra officially opened Scottish Television's new studios.
• 1975
  • August – BBC Scotland started its sports show, Sportscene.
• 1976
  • 3 April – The first episode of BBC Scotland's rural affairs series Landward was broadcast.
• 1978
  • Scotland Today started broadcasting all year round, without its usual summer break.
  • Grampian's local news show Grampian Today expanded to five nights a week. This was possible because they started using new electronic cameras for news gathering.
  • The BBC Scotland series The Beechgrove Garden also started.
• 1979
  • 10 August – A ten-week strike at ITV forced all of Scotland's ITV channels off the air. The strike ended on 24 October.

The 1980s: Breakfast TV and Changes

• 1980
  • 7 January – Grampian Today was relaunched as North Tonight to cover all of northern Scotland. A new studio also opened in Dundee.
  • 19 February – The first episode of the popular soap opera Take the High Road was broadcast.
  • 1 December – BBC Scotland tried a one-week experiment with breakfast television, showing a TV version of their radio breakfast show.
  • 28 December – All three of Scotland's ITV broadcasters kept their licenses to continue broadcasting.
• 1981
  • 8 September – BBC One Scotland changed its name to BBC Scotland.
• 1983
  • Grampian opened a studio in Inverness, helping them cover more of the Highlands and Islands.
  • 17 January – Breakfast Time, Britain's first breakfast TV show, launched on BBC1. BBC Scotland had its own news updates during this show.
  • 1 February – ITV's breakfast TV service, TV-am, launched across the UK.
  • 24 October – Reporting Scotland was renamed Scotland Sixty Minutes for a short time.
• 1984
  • 30 July – Reporting Scotland got its original name back.
  • 8 October – Scotland Today was relaunched with more feature stories, and news became just short summaries.
• 1985
  • 4 January – The last old-style 405-line TV signals were switched off in Scotland. This meant the Kirk o' Shotts transmitting station stopped sending TV signals.
  • Grampian and Scottish Television launched new computer-generated logos.
• 1986
  • 20 October – After many complaints, the changes to Scotland Today were reversed. It became a news programme again, and the feature stories moved to a new lunchtime show.
• 1988
  • 13 February – Scottish Television started broadcasting 24 hours a day.
  • Grampian also started broadcasting regional news bulletins on weekends.
  • 2 September – Grampian and Border Television also began 24-hour broadcasting.
• 1989
  • August – BBC Scotland launched an extended Saturday afternoon sports results programme called Afternoon Sportscene.
  • Border Television started providing a special local news service for viewers in the Scottish Borders.

The 1990s: Digital TV Arrives

• 1991
  • 18 February – BBC 1 Scotland was rebranded as BBC Scotland on 1, and BBC 2 Scotland as BBC Scotland on 2.
  • 16 October – Scottish, Grampian, and Border all kept their ITV licenses.
  • 31 December – The BBC aired the first edition of Hogmanay Live, an annual programme that celebrates the New Year.
• 1993
  • 4 January –
    • For the first time, news bulletins from Scotland were shown on ITV during breakfast, following the launch of GMTV.
    • STV launched a 30-minute lunchtime edition of Scotland Today.
  • The Scottish Gaelic news programme Telefios started broadcasting on both STV and Grampian.
  • May – After 29 seasons, STV stopped broadcasting Scotsport Results.
  • 31 December – The first edition of the annual Scottish football comedy show Only an Excuse? was aired on BBC Scotland on 1 for Hogmanay.
• 1994
  • 10 November – The first episode of BBC Scotland Investigates was broadcast.
• 1996
  • 1 November – SMG plc (who owned STV) and BSkyB launched Sky Scottish, a channel for Scots living in other parts of the UK. It broadcast for two hours each evening.
• 1997
  • June – SMG plc bought Grampian Television for £105 million. Soon after, the company became SMG.
• 1998
  • 31 May – Sky Scottish closed down because it didn't meet its financial goals.
  • 23 September – BBC Choice, the UK's first digital-only TV station, launched. It had about two hours of programming for Scotland each night.
  • 15 November – Digital terrestrial TV officially launched in the UK.
• 1999
  • April – Border Television's local news service for the Scottish Borders expanded to cover Dumfries and Galloway. A special Scottish news bulletin was also introduced on weekday lunchtimes.
  • 30 April – S2 launched.
  • 4 October – Newsnight Scotland launched. This was a BBC Scotland special part of the main Newsnight programme on BBC Two.
  • 31 October – TeleG, Scotland's first daily Gaelic language digital channel, launched.

The 2000s: STV Rebrands and New Channels

• 2000
  • The Gaelic news bulletin Telefios was stopped.
• 2001
  • 30 March – BBC Choice Scotland ended. Soon after, BBC Two's Scottish versions became available to digital viewers.
  • 27 July – S2 closed and was replaced by ITV2.
• 2002
  • 24 September – BBC Scotland's soap opera River City started.
  • 28 October – Border Television was rebranded as ITV Border.
• 2003
  • 27 April – After more than 23 years, the final episode of the soap opera Take the High Road was broadcast.
  • June – STV North's Aberdeen headquarters moved to new, smaller studios.
• 2004
  • 8 January – STV launched a new political programme called Politics Now.
  • Autumn – The lunchtime edition of Scotland Today was stopped.
• 2006
  • 30 May – Scottish Television was rebranded as "STV" across all of Scotland. This meant the Grampian Television name was no longer used after 45 years. The area previously covered by Grampian was now called "STV North."
  • STV moved from their old base to a new, smaller building at Pacific Quay, right next to BBC Scotland's headquarters.
• 2007
  • 8 January – STV launched separate news services for the East and West parts of the STV Central region.
  • August – The Scottish Government created the Scottish Broadcasting Commission to look after TV production and broadcasting in Scotland.
  • 20 September – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown opened BBC Scotland's new Pacific Quay studio complex in Glasgow.
• 2008
  • 22 May – After more than 50 years, STV stopped broadcasting Scotsport because BBC Scotland bought the rights to show highlights of the Scottish Premier League.
  • 19 September – The Scottish Gaelic television channel BBC Alba launched.
  • 1 October – Scottish Media Group was rebranded STV Group plc to show its focus on television.
  • November – STV started choosing not to show some ITV programmes that they felt weren't popular in Scotland. They also stopped showing ITV's coverage of the FA Cup.
• 2009
  • 23 March – Scotland Today and North Tonight were rebranded as STV News at Six. Separate programmes for the North and Central regions continued.
  • July – STV announced it would stop showing even more ITV programmes, like The Bill and Midsomer Murders, to focus more on shows made in Scotland.

The 2010s: Digital Switchover and New Channels

• 2010
  • 6 June – STV HD (High Definition) launched.
  • 20 October – The digital switchover was completed in STV North (the old Grampian Television region).
• 2011
  • 27 April – ITV plc and STV settled a legal disagreement.
  • May – Separate half-hour editions of STV News at Six for the East and West were launched, along with local late-night news bulletins.
  • 21 May – The BBC announced that to launch BBC Alba on Freeview, most of its radio stations would stop broadcasting on that platform in Scotland while the Gaelic TV channel was on air.
  • 23 May – The Gaelic language television station TeleG closed after twelve years.
  • 22 June – The digital switchover was completed across all of Scotland.
  • 24 October – STV launched a 30-minute late evening news programme called Scotland Tonight.
• 2012
  • March – A new agreement was made between ITV and other Channel 3 license holders. STV and UTV would pay a fee to broadcast ITV content.
  • April – STV's Edinburgh office moved to a new studio.
• 2013
  • 14 January – BBC One Scotland began broadcasting in high-definition.
• 2014
  • 28 April – STV HD became available on Sky and Freesat.
  • 22 May – The final episode of Newsnight Scotland was broadcast on BBC Two Scotland.
  • 28 May – Scotland 2014 launched as BBC Scotland's new replacement for Newsnight Scotland.
  • 2 June – STV launched its first local television channel, STV Glasgow.
  • 18–19 September – The BBC, ITV, and Sky News provided extensive coverage of the Scottish independence referendum results overnight.
• 2015
  • 12 January – STV launched its second local television channel, STV Edinburgh.
  • 19 March – STV was given three more local TV licenses for Aberdeen, Ayr, and Dundee.
• 2016
  • 14 December – The final episode of Scotland 2016 was broadcast on BBC Two Scotland.
• 2017
  • 24 April – STV combined its local channels and relaunched them as a single channel called STV2. This change included a new prime-time news programme called STV News Tonight, which covered news from across Scotland, the UK, and the world.
• 2018
  • 30 June – STV2 closed down. This led to the cancellation of STV News Tonight.
  • 7 September – The Edinburgh edition of STV News at Six ended.
  • 15 October – That's TV Scotland launched as the new local television service in Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.
• 2019
  • 17 February – BBC Two Scotland closed to prepare for the launch of the new BBC Scotland channel. Viewers could still watch the national version of BBC Two.
  • 24 February – The new BBC Scotland TV channel launched! Early figures showed it had a peak viewership of 700,000 people.
  • 25 February – BBC Scotland launched its main weekday news programme, The Nine.
  • 27 February – The Debate, BBC Scotland's weekly political discussion show, launched.

See also

• Timeline of Scottish Television
• Timeline of Grampian Television
• Timeline of Border Television