STV reversed a broadcasting trend yesterday when it announced it was setting up a nightly hour-long news and current affairs programme.

STV reversed a broadcasting trend yesterday when it announced it was setting up a nightly hour-long news and current affairs programme.

From early next year, probably January, stv will opt out of the network at 5.30pm and "provide a dedicated hour of news for Scotland each weekday".

The new programme will incorporate its current flagship news programmes, Scotland Today and North Tonight, which currently go out at 6pm.

The move, announced yesterday when the broadcaster's owner SMG delivered its interim report, comes against a backdrop of a proposal to merge ITV newsrooms south of the border and amid concerns over levels of investment in news and current affairs programmes in Scotland.

Blair Jenkins, former head of news and current affairs at BBC Scotland until he resigned in July 2006, writing in The Herald earlier this year, highlighted "some grim news" that the spend on current affairs television in Scotland (BBC plus stv) declined by 45% from 2001 to 2006. He said budgets were also down over the same period by 27%.

The figures came from industry regulator Ofcom's annual Communications Market Report for the nations and regions of the UK.

At the time he said: "It seems incredible in the first decade of devolution, when a real and sizeable policy agenda has emerged for investigation and debate, that spending on TV current affairs should virtually be halved and spending on news should be reduced by more than a quarter."

Yesterday, Mr Jenkins, who last month was appointed chair of the new Scottish Broadcasting Commission, said of stv's proposal: "I think it is a move greatly to be welcomed. It is a positive sign that the new board at SMG think it is appropriate to invest in more Scottish programming."

The commission was ordered by First Minister Alex Salmond to "examine the current state of television production and broadcasting in Scotland and define a strategic way forward for the industry".

The commission, which will have its first meeting next month and publish its report next year, is also charged with taking account of the "economic, cultural and democratic importance of broadcasting to a modern, outward-looking Scotland".

SMG's interim report yesterday said viewing ratings for its Scotland Today and North Tonight programmes had grown year on year by 10% and 24.6% respectively, and they regularly outperform BBC1's Six O'Clock News, whose ratings, it claimed, had fallen 4% year on year. It also claimed the viewing share of BBC1's Reporting Scotland is also down 7% year on year.

It added: "To build on the success of news, we will be introducing a new extra half-hour news-driven programme in the 5.30pm slot in early 2008.

"This programme will be a news-led, magazine-style format which will deliver topical discussion on what is important in Scotland.

"STV will take control of the schedule and provide a dedicated hour of news for Scotland each weekday."

A spokeswoman for stv said the programme would be "very different" from Lunchtime Scotland Today, which was taken off air in 2005, and would feature the main news of the day from across Scotland, regular features on health, consumer and environmental issues alongside the weather, entertainment and sport.

UTV in Northern Ireland has used the hour-long 5.30pm news-led format very successfully for about 10 years. Some other ITV regions south of the border have also gone down this road.

Linda Fabiani, the Minister for Culture, yesterday said: "We welcome any effort to deliver a better broadcasting service to the people of Scotland and of course this follows the commitment from the director-general of the BBC to boost production north of the border."

"The Scottish Government recently established the Scottish Broadcasting Commission to investigate the current state of television production and broadcasting in Scotland and define a strategic way forward for the industry and it is clear that it has already had a substantial impact."

Atholl Duncan, head of news and current affairs at BBC Scotland, said yesterday: "Fifty years on from the first BBC TV news bulletin for Scotland, Reporting Scotland still plays a central role in the viewing habits of the country. Across TV, radio and online, BBC Scotland news is the preferred choice of the vast majority of Scottish people."