Scottish Television

Scottish Television (now legally known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the second-oldest franchise holder in the UK that is still active (the oldest being Granada Television).

STV Central broadcasts from studios at Pacific Quay in Glasgow and is owned and operated by STV Group (formerly SMG plc), which also owns the Northern Scotland franchise, Grampian Television (now STV North), based in Aberdeen. It produces news for the west and east halves of its transmission region (STV News at Six) along with current affairs and feature programming for Northern and Central Scotland.

Along with STV North and ITV Border, STV Central is a commercial rival to the publicly funded national broadcaster, BBC Scotland.

Scottish Television was founded by Canadian newspaper magnate Roy Thomson (later Lord Thomson). To base the station, he bought the Theatre Royal, Glasgow from Howard & Wyndham Ltd, who became minor partners in the new venture. Thomson invited Canadian television producer Rai Purdy to become the station's first head of programming. In the months leading up to opening night, Purdy pledged that the new channel would provide "first class entertainment" and "as much cultural programming as possible" as well as allowing "Scottish talent every opportunity to develop and be seen on STV".

On 24 May 1955, a letter from the Independent Television Authority advised him that on the following Wednesday a press conference would be held in the North British Hotel, Edinburgh (which was to announce that he had been awarded the contract to set up a Scottish television company). The press release handed out at the conference stated that the transmitting station and aerials, which Thomson would have to rent from the ITA, would be ready for service in August 1957. Roy Thomson signed the contract with the ITA on 19 June 1957. The launch of a second television channel required alterations to people's television sets and/or aerials. Older sets had to be converted with an additional tuning device, and even for newer sets which had this tuner already built-in, an additional aerial was required. With nearly half a million sets and aerials in Scotland, it was going to be a huge undertaking. When independent television began in England, everybody wanted their sets converted at the same time and radio dealers could not cope with the last-minute rush. The problem was exacerbated by a shortage of radio and television mechanics. In order to avoid similar chaos in Scotland, STV (in association with the television trade) arranged a series of 21 exhibitions in the principal towns and burghs in the reception area months ahead of launch.

The Exhibitions ran from Tuesday until Friday and were open from 14:30–21:30. The admission charge was 1/- for adults, 6d for children and old age pensioners. Every visitor to the Exhibition received a free copy of a 24-page Television Guide, which gave them a colourful picture of the programmes they would see on Scottish ITV. Every set in the Exhibition showed either BBC output or the new commercial programme. The latter was relayed through closed circuit from telecine equipment housed in a specially-constructed Morris Commercial vehicle, specially constructed for the exhibitions and carrying equipment valued at over £10,000. In an adjoining hall, a cinema show was staged. This showed samples of the programmes STV would be presenting, including American attractions such as I Love Lucy, Brave Eagle, and Douglas Fairbanks Presents, as well as home-grown shows Sunday Night at the Palladium and The 64,000 Question, and advertising films. Also featured was a film of local interest, taken by STV's outside broadcasting (OB) unit a few days prior to the show, showing crowd scenes and various local activities. This offered the enticing prospect of exhibition visitors seeing themselves on television and thus finding out they were already "television stars"! The Pye OB unit, which cost £37,000 and was housed in a specially constructed vehicle, was on show outside the hall. A TV camera which was on display at the STV stand proved to be a big attraction. People standing around near the camera found that their images were being projected on screens at the other end of the hall.

Thomson said that, in initial stages, he expected to produce about ten hours a week of Scottish programmes. This was at a time when, under the terms of the Television Act, they were limited to a programme schedule of 50 hours a week. "It will certainly make the Scottish station very Scottish indeed in its programme content," he said. They planned a talent show, Fanfare; a quiz programme; a play presented once a month or each alternate month, chosen from either the Citizen's, Glasgow, the Gateway, Edinburgh, or the theatres in Perth or Dundee. There would also be a series, The Tamsons, about a Scottish family — but the problem was going to be finding someone who could write this, as not many Scots were experienced in writing for television. Scotsplay was also planned as a children's programme, while In Heaven and Earth was described by Purdy as "our big cultural effort", which would "contain a bit of anything and everything culturally interesting, provocative, or entertaining"; it would run for half an hour. British news would be featured twice a day, followed by Scottish news. In July, it was announced that the Scottish actor James Robertson Justice, a Rank Organization film star, would introduce STV's opening programme, This is Scotland.

Scottish Television began broadcasting at 5:30 pm on Saturday 31 August 1957 with This is Scotland, an hour-long variety broadcast live from the Theatre Royal studios – STV was the seventh ITV franchise to launch, and the first outside the three largest regions (London, the Midlands and Northern England), as well as the first to broadcast seven days a week.^{[citation needed]} Scottish Television's first sport-related programme was "Fanfare", which debuted on 2 September 1957, where, compered by Archie McCulloch, supporters of rival football clubs competed against one another each Monday.^{[citation needed]}