STV – Scottish Television

On August 31, 1957, Scottish Television made its debut in Central Scotland as the first seven-day franchise granted by the Independent Television Authority (ITA). This milestone led households across Scotland to ponder, “What’s on Channel 10, Hen?” The network was founded by Canadian newspaper tycoon Roy Thomson, who established its headquarters at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, where the inaugural broadcast of ‘This Is Scotland’ took place.

In the 1970s, the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) approached Scottish Television about the possibility of launching a second ITV channel, although this never materialised. Nonetheless, the network made significant contributions to Channel 4, including the first-ever televised coverage of Curling.

In 1981, Scottish Television became the first ITV region to feature its own regional teletext pages on the ORACLE service. The network expanded its reach by acquiring Grampian Television in June 1997, but a bid to take over Border Television was unsuccessful, losing out to Capital Media. In 2006, the channel underwent a rebranding and became known as STV Central.