STV 'defying gravity' as independent, says Michael Grade

The former head of ITV says Scottish broadcaster STV has "defied gravity" by remaining an independent company.

Michael Grade was speaking in a BBC Scotland interview to mark 60 years of commercial television.

ITV was originally a federation of fiercely independent regional companies - not a single business.

Lord Grade also reflected that through much of ITV's history, Scotland made little contribution to the network.

Commercial television in Britain started in the London area on 22 September 1955.

Over the following few years stations opened up across most of the country.

STV began broadcasting to Central Scotland in 1957 with Border and Grampian opening in 1961.

After the rules governing commercial broadcasting were relaxed in the 1990s, the regional companies in the rest of the UK gradually merged with each other.

One company - ITV plc - now owns all the stations based in England and Wales including Border TV. STV - which also covers Northern Scotland now - and UTV in Northern Ireland are the only remaining independent businesses.

However UTV is in talks to sell its TV business - ITVplc is widely reported to be the likely buyer. This would leave STV as the only independent station in the channel 3 network.

Asked if STV could remain independent, Lord Grade said: "It seems to be doing very well. The chap who's running it (Rob Woodward) seems to be defying gravity."

He added: "As long as he can keep the business moving forward it should be safe but these days who knows? Everything has a price."

Lord Grade's late uncle Lew Grade was one of the pioneers of ITV. His company ATV had an early success with Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

Until the 1980s, the ITV network was deliberately set up in such a way that it meant smaller companies such as STV had only limited opportunities to have their programmes shown nationally.

The London companies, ATV (later Central), Granada and Yorkshire were tasked with providing the bulk of the network schedule - companies like STV tended to contribute at the margins of the national schedule or find niches. The smaller companies' main role was to provide programmes aimed at viewers in their own area.

Later, the system was relaxed and in the late 80s and 90s STV's high-profile programmes included the drama Taggart and the game show Wheel of Fortune. It also made a big contribution to the network's children's programmes.

Today STV's production business pitches ideas and makes programmes to several national broadcasters. Its successes include Catchphrase on ITV and the BBC daytime show Antiques Road Trip.