Television in Scotland mostly consists of UK-wide broadcasts, with variations at different times which are specific to Scotland. Scotland has no major television channel of its own and most people receive channels that are broadcast to the United Kingdom as a whole, including five terrestrial channels and various digital channels.
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Terrestrial channels
Viewers in Scotland receive four or five public terrestrial television stations. All of these are regional variants/opt-outs upon British television channels. In addition to the three Scottish stations, the country also receives two UK-wide channels, as well as a multitude of European digital and satellite stations: Channel 4, and Channel 5, whose broadcast coverage is more limited, and in very remote areas difficult or impossible to receive.
BBC Scotland
Scotland has its own BBC Scotland services, BBC One Scotland and BBC Two Scotland, which commenced broadcasting on 14 March 1952 and 20 April 1964 respectively. Much of the output of BBC Scotland Television, such as news and current affairs programmes, and the Glasgow-based soap opera, River City, are intended for broadcast within Scotland, whilst others, such as drama and comedy programmes, aim at audiences throughout the UK and further afield. Sports coverage also differs, reflecting the fact that the country has its own football and rugby union leagues and national teams, separate from those of the other United Kingdom constituent nations and other sporting interests unique to Scotland, such as shinty or curling. Viewers on the Freeview HD platform within the BBC Scotland broadcasting area can now re-opt-in to the BBC network when Scotland opts out via BBC1 HD and BBC HD channels, extending choice to Scottish viewers which was only previously an option for satellite and cable viewers.
ITV in Scotland
Three ITV stations (Border, STV Central and STV North) also broadcast in Scotland. In the early 1960s, Grampian Television was created to provide commercial television services serving the Highlands and Islands, but in 1997 it was bought by STV Group plc, owners of the longer established Scottish Television. In May 2006, both channels were re-branded "STV" with newsrooms in Glasgow and Aberdeen retained to provide separate news services for their respective regions. Seven months later, STV launched news opt-outs for the East of Central Scotland (broadcast from Edinburgh) and Tayside & North East Fife (broadcast from Dundee). ITV Border has had a more complex position, as it also has to serve neighbouring areas across the border in England. Most of the independent television output equates to that transmitted in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with the exception of news and current affairs, sport, cultural and Scottish Gaelic language programming.
The available ITV station depends on region:
News Programming
There have been claims that British television news (which is the main source of news on Scottish Television) does not cater to Scottish needs: Dr Douglas MacMillan, of the University of Aberdeen has found that Scottish news was "peripheral" compared with English stories. His six-month study into the BBC showed 34% of all news focused on England while just 2% was dedicated to Scotland, despite having 10% of the population.
Scottish Gaelic Television
In 1999, TeleG became the first channel to broadcast only Gaelic-language programmes. It aired for an hour everyday and showed archive shows. It ceased to transmit in 2011. In 2008, BBC Alba began broadcasting with its slogan being "A new channel for Scotland". It is a joint venture with MG Alba, which produces many programs for the channel. BBC Alba shows programmes of different genres, including general entertainment, news, documentaries, children's programmes, dramas, sport and films.
As well as these, the following channels also broadcast some Gaelic language programmes: BBC One Scotland, BBC Two Scotland and STV.
The Scottish Six
One of the longest running controversies regarding news broadcasting in Scotland has been over proposals for an early evening, weekday BBC television news programme, containing international, UK and Scottish items, produced and edited in Scotland. This proposed show is referred to as the Scottish Six.
In November 1998 Professor Lindsay Paterson resigned from the BBC's broadcasting council for Scotland in protest, after it emerged that the BBC was hostile to allowing Scotland its own news programme at 6pm.
In May 2006 Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the BBC, ruled out any prospect of a Scottish Six news bulletin to replace that produced in London.
STV announced similar plans in September 2009 to launch an hour-long edition of STV News at Six, incorporating Scottish, national and international news with local ten-minute opt-outs for six sub-regions. The pan-regional programme would have replaced the two separate programmes for northern and central Scotland, however the plans were later dropped in favour of a retained North news service and the launch of two separate news services for the West and East of Central Scotland. A late night current affairs programme, Scotland Tonight, was launched in October 2011.
In February 2017, the BBC announced plans for a dedicated part-time television channel to serve Scotland, replacing the current regional feed of BBC Two; as part of these plans, it was announced that the proposed service would feature an hour-long news and public affairs program broadcast and produced out of Scotland, echoing the Scottish Six proposals.