The Scottish broadcaster has robustly defended itself against charges that it shows inferior programmes at the expense of more popular ITV content, but STV director Bobby Hain told industry figures: “We’re the first to admit, not everything we’ve done we’ve done right.”
Although he insisted that station executives were looking forward to a “strong 2010” with “a spring in our step”, Mr Hain – in charge of broadcast services and regulatory affairs at the Glasgow-based station – described 2009 as “a transitional year”.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Scottish branch of the Royal Television Society, he acknowledged that the controversial opt-out decision had thrown up some problems that would have to be addressed in future.
The channel must show a minimum of 4524 hours of ITV national programming each year, and can opt out of anything over and above that where it sees fit.
However, viewers have complained that they are missing out on big shows like Collision, a crime drama starring Barrhead-born Dougie Henshaw, which was replaced with the less popular Greatest Scot documentary.
The ITV show pulled an audience share of 30.4%, but the Scottish substitute reached just 13.3% of viewers in Scotland, pushing it behind BBC in terms of ratings.
In a post-lecture interview with trade website allmedia scotland, Mr Hain said: “The Sunday evening schedule actually hasn’t worked particularly well for us. We are the first to admit that. It’s our schedule, it is our long-term strategy, we are in the early stages, [and] we are committed to getting it right.
“The work we’re doing on 2010 I think absolutely builds on the experience of 2009. You’ll see a stronger, more diverse, more engaging, higher quality schedule next year.”
The Scottish broadcaster is embroiled in a legal dispute with ITV over network programme budget contributions, and both sides have now launched proceedings against the other.
Mr Hain told members of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee in November that the decision to opt out of ITV programming was not primarily motivated by money, although he said between £3 million and £5m would be saved annually by showing home-made content.
Asked this week about the opt-out, he acknowledged that cost was “one factor”, but said that the bigger issue was that, despite handing over “the best part of £50m” to ITV in exchange for programmes, Scots were left with “no influence, and no real say in what’s being commissioned”.
The alternative, he said, was for STV to “decide, as we have done, to create a fund by coming out of some network programmes – which is absolutely our right to do – and to use some of the money that we’ve saved to invest in programming in Scotland”.
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