STV will be allowed to go ahead with controversial cuts to its news output.
Broadcasting regulator Ofcom on Monday confirmed that it will allow STV to move ahead with plans to remove its dedicated north of Scotland television news programme and axe 28 jobs.
It will be replaced with a single programme from Glasgow, which will include sections devoted to regional news.
STV said the changes would allow it to produce “high-quality, trusted national and regional news” that is also “sustainable for our business”. However, the journalists’ union argued it would cause “long-term damage” to Scotland’s media landscape.
The broadcaster said it will now:
- Create two versions of STV News at Six, which will include a shared-section broadcast (a maximum of 70% of programmes’ duration) featuring stories of interest across Scotland, plus separate sections with content specific to each of the north and central areas (a minimum of 30% of the programmes).
- Newsgathering resources will remain on the ground at all existing sites in Inverness, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee as well as Holyrood and Westminster.
- Presentation of STV News at Six will be from its Glasgow studio, with the Aberdeen studio also regularly in use.
- The presenting team will include senior journalists from both the north and central regions.
STV chief executive Rufus Radcliffe said: “We’re incredibly proud of STV News at Six, which remains Scotland’s most watched news programme, but like all public service media companies, we must respond to the significant shift in audience behaviour.
“The changes Ofcom has approved to our licences will enable us to continue serving viewers with the high-quality, trusted national and regional news they expect from us. Crucially, this will be sustainable for our business and will be accessible on air and across all the digital platforms viewers now expect.
“As a commercial public service broadcaster, that receives no public funding, we are focused on the future and what we do best – trusted news and high-quality content that continues to resonate with audiences across all of Scotland.”
A statement from Ofcom said: “We remain of the view that STV’s proposals will continue to ensure that audiences are served with high-quality regional news on STV’s linear services that is of interest to the audiences in each region, while also helping it meet the challenges of changing audience consumption habits.
“Critical to this decision is STV’s commitment to maintaining newsgathering resources across its geographic bases to ensure news is gathered from across STV’s two licensed areas. In our view this will ensure audiences of both services will continue to be served with high-quality, regional news programming on a sustainable basis for STV.”
Ofcom added: “We have therefore decided to approve STV’s revised request relating to news sharing and to remove the sub-regional opts from the STV Central and North licences. We will shortly issue draft licence variations to STV, and we expect to finish the variation process in summer 2026.”
Previously, the National Union of Journalists spoke against the planned changes, calling them a “fundamental mistake”.
The NUJ said that if the changes are allowed, they will cause “long-term damage to journalism across Scotland, and the ability of local journalism to inform voters and local communities”.
The union argued that the changes could create a precedent for other licence holders to reduce their public service broadcasting obligations, diminishing the news output produced across the nations and regions.
