Channel owe their success to all staff
Hand on heart, I can’t say I’ll mourn STV2. Hand on TV remote, I barely ever tuned in.
Life is busy and viewing habits have been revolutionised.
When there is competition from hundreds of channels, not to mention box sets, downloads and iPlayer, TV has to be “must see” to stand a chance of pulling in viewers.
That said, there are many talented people working at STV2 and the potential loss of 59 jobs turns its demise into a bad movie for everyone involved – except chief executive Simon Pitts.
STV chairwoman Baroness Ford has been defending his package as “usual practice”. It may be just business for the Labour peer but, for the 59 staff now under threat of losing their job, it’s all too personal.
The fact is that some things work in TV and some don’t. Remember Scotland 2016? The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, launched in 2014 in the run-up to the referendum, was dropped from its fournights-a-week slot on BBC2 when audience figures slumped.
It was cut because it was struggling to compete against STV’s Scotland Tonight.
Fortunately, in that case, no jobs were lost. But comparing the two programmes, you could see who had the bigger budget.
Scotland Tonight works because of the skills of those who work on it, exemplified by hosts John MacKay and Rona Dougall.
STV should remember to invest in all of their people, not just one.