Further to my last update on moves towards local television for Dundee, many thanks to TayScreen for this latest news :
STV is the only bidder for the Dundee, Aberdeen and Ayrshire licences, this report in Broadcast.
STV is saying that local TV will reflect Dundee’s focus on creative industries. As mentioned, they are working in collaboration with Abertay and D&A College.
These stations may be on air by the end of 2015 or early 2016.
TV has revealed more about its plan to build a local TV empire after bidding for three more licences in Scotland.
The commercial broadcaster is aiming to win licences in Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee.
STV director of channels Bobby Hain said it will capture the unique characteristics of each town in the local stations’ output.
“The channels will characterise the different areas,” he said. “There is the oil and energy sector in Aberdeen, the vibrancy of Dundee’s creative centre and agriculture, tourism and sport in Ayrshire. We’ll reflect these characteristics.”
If it wins the licences, STV will boast five local TV stations, having already secured channels in Glasgow and Edinburgh in Ofcom’s first round of licencing.
The Scottish broadcaster submitted bids for Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee after conducting research that revealed that more than 94% of respondents in the three towns wanted to receive more news programming from their area.
Each channel will be populated by “tailor-made content from the area” supplemented by “common current affairs content”, such as activity from the Scottish parliament in Holyrood.
STV Glasgow launched in June and airs 35 hours of local programming a week, including seven hours of repeats and 12 hours of current affairs. Hain said the proposals for the new licences are in line with these quotas. “We’re playing to our strengths. We have a very strong connection with our audience across channel three, and people know the STV brand,” said Hain.