Revealed, the flagship STV news show that attracts NO viewers
... and even on a good day, only a tiny minority tune in to bulletins
A FLAGSHIP news show introduced by STV is regularly broadcasting to no viewers.
The Scottish Seven bulletin was billed as a ‘TV first’ in Scotland, by offering Scottish, UK and international news produced and broadcast from Glasgow.
But viewing figures reveal that the show, presented by Halla Mohieddeen, is regularly failing to attract anyone to watch.
It is up against programmes including Emmerdale, The One Show, co-hosted by Alex Jones and Matt Baker, and The Simpsons on other channels.
The figures will be worrying for the BBC, which is planning to introduce its own standalone Scottish channel next year.
Figures obtained by the Scottish Daily Mail show not a single person was watching STV News Tonight on Tuesday or Wednesday, November 21 and 22, or on Monday, November 13.
On other nights, the show attracted only a tiny number of viewers, according to the data from Overnights.TV, which publishes the official Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board figures for UK audiences.
John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said: ‘The platform for the show is not terribly well known. If it was on the main STV channel then you would get more viewers.
‘It illustrates the challenge for the BBC in terms of its new Scottish channel. Attracting viewers to a new channel is not easy and we’ve seen the difficulty the BBC has had maintaining BBC Three. For a Scottish news and current affairs show to work, it needs to be on the right platform.
‘To give STV their due, they are
‘It illustrates the challenge’
providing the vast share of serious coverage of Scottish politics. The devolved institutions have become more powerful than ever but the loss of Scotland 2016/Newsnight Scotland means there is no extended Scottish news on the BBC’s platform in the morning or after 7pm in the evening. STV, by contrast, have made a great success of Scotland Tonight and that is the difference with putting something on the right platform.’
STV announced it would set up the Scottish Seven news show last September, days after the UK Government’s draft charter for the BBC attempted to kill off plans to replace the Six O’Clock News with an hour-long show made in Glasgow covering Scottish, UK and international news.
As he announced the new show, STV head of news Gordon Macmillan said: ‘This is a programme whose merits have been longdebated in Scotland.
‘I’m delighted that it is STV that will bring this landmark new programme to Scotland’s screens. Viewers can look forward to yet another TV first: the best of Scottish, UK and international news in a single programme and presented in the way that solely meets the needs of a Scottish audience.’
The show is broadcast on the new STV2 channel, which replaced STV Edinburgh and STV Glasgow, and is on air directly after the normal STV News At Six and ITV Evening News.
It is widely promoted on the STV News At Six, but the new figures show tiny numbers of viewers are enticed into switching over to watch it.
Last week, 7,400 people tuned into the Monday show, but nobody watched it on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Thursday bulletin attracted an audience of 5,000, followed by only 300 people on the Friday. The previous week started badly with no viewers on the Monday, with numbers ranging from 3,600 to 6,700 for the rest of the week.
However, the BBC’s submission to Ofcom about its plans for a new Scottish digital channel said there was ‘a strong appetite for BBC news with a focus on Scotland’ and said Reporting Scotland was the most popular bulletin screened north of the Border.
It said that the average number of viewers aged 16 or over tuning in to Reporting Scotland was 470,000, compared to 410,000 for the BBC Six O’Clock News, 380,000 for the STV News At Six and 320,000 for the BBC Ten O’Clock News.
An STV spokesman said: ‘STV2 launched in April this year and its flagship STV News Tonight programme has already achieved viewing figures on a par with, and slightly ahead of, the longestablished Sky News Tonight.
‘Feedback on the programme has been very positive from viewers and 390,000 have watched it since its introduction, with an average monthly reach of 90,000.
‘We are therefore pleased with the performance of STV News Tonight, which provides a unique news service by covering a comprehensive mix of Scottish, UK and international news.’