STV: Interview with Bobby Hain
Bobby Hain, pictured left, Managing Director of Broadcasting and Regulatory Affairs at STV speaks to ATV Today.
Bobby Hain, pictured above, Managing Director of Broadcasting and Regulatory Affairs at STV speaks to ATV Today.
The decision to opt-out of some ITV network programmes has paid off?
“Well we set ourselves an objective to run our schedule with more Scottish content and to make space for that kind of programming and at the same time we want to match the peak time share of the rest of the network so that the two main clear objectives is firstly to create space to include other types of programming, notably Scottish material and secondly, to do that without in anyway damaging our overall audience share.
“We have managed to get some great programming into the schedule and we are on track to deliver the same time audience share as the rest of the network, so I’d say the programme strategy is a success.”
What has the feedback from viewers been like?
“People very much like the fact that we have additional material made in Scotland. I think that the roots of STV and the ITV network are very regionally based…you have to remember that not that long ago all the different ITV regions had different names and were all making programmes for their regions and given the fact that Scotland is a devolved nation – many of the administrative operations and institutions are devolved to Scotland so you absolutely need to have a public service broadcaster which is an alternative to the BBC that is delivering relevant content. Of course some people are missing individual programmes and we understand that but over time I think the people are really understanding that if they didn’t have the type of programmes that STV are committed to making, they would be poorer for it.”
With ITV, do you sometimes feel like the bad guys?
“I think our approach is absolutely true to the origins and objectives of the Channel 3 network, so we are delivering 95% of the network material and absolute committed to the ITV network…it’s fantastic to have a schedule that’s got Coronation Street, The X Factor, Champions League Football. All of these properties are available to all of the licence holders all over the country, that’s the beauty of a federal system but equally I think if we were to just let all of the programming come from London and just pass through Pacific Quay without making any difference to it then I think that would not be a position for us to be able to defend.
“We have to make a difference in Scotland, we have to serve our audience, so I think that a lot of people view this a change to the way that the network is but it’s a return to our roots. It’s a re-examination of regionality by putting localness and Scotland back in the frame in the STV output.”
The Hour, which broadcasts daily on STV, for people who don’t know what is it, could you tell us about it?
“The Hour is the only live TV magazine programme which is produced outside of London…the programme is presented by Michelle McManus who is a former Pop Idol winner and Stephen Jardine who is a well known TV presenter who has presented a variety of shows who work very well together. It’s a topical magazine programme which very much centres on entertainment and lifestyle and so on, but what a buzz, in the past few weeks we’ve had Westlife, The Wanted, Joe McElderry, John Barrowman who is a regular friend of the show. Whenever we have big names there are people in the car park wanting to see them and it’s a real buzz. The programme is attracting around 1 million viewers a week, it’s a great success.”
Are there any plans to increase dramas, documentaries and comedies in 2011?
“We would love to do more of all them genres but in the overall scheme of things we will deliver around about the same amount of programming ourselves as we did this year. We are very comfortable with the level of Scottish programming and material that we are making. Taggart, which we premiered on STV this autumn has been a very big success. We would love to do more drama but that’s a very expensive form of programming and it takes a very long time to start a drama from development through to getting it on air.
“We do have a comedy in the pipeline which is happening now and we will have more documentaries, more factual pieces through 2011. Overall the balance will be the same and I think the mix of genres will be roughly the same as what it is this year.”
ITV has just had recent success with Downton Abbey, STV decided not to show the programme, will it ever be shown?
“We would never say never. I think we will always look at future network programmes, remember though that we are a commercial business and everything we do has to give us a commercial return so we have to get the biggest audience that we can overall and deliver that to advertisers and more viewers…we would never turn our back on anything, we would always be open to the idea that we would look at everything afresh and consider what options we have going forward.”
So the decision not show it Downton Abbey was nothing to do with money constraints?
“There’s always a combination of considerations, we absolutely wanted to have the best slot that we could for our Taggart premier and the Sunday night run of 9 o’Clock slots for Taggart were absolutely perfect, so that was a driving consideration in our factor on that particular occasion.”
STV Local launched this year with six micro news websites which have been a success. Are there plans to take it nationwide?
“Yes there is. The six sites that you mention are in North Lanarkshire alone, so we have a very concentrated coverage in a relatively small part of Scotland. We do plan similar sites like them all across Scotland and in fact by the end of this year we will have rolled out to around 25% of the country which is a pretty speedy transition. We are going next to Aberdeenshire and South Lanarkshire and rolling into others next year so this is an exciting transition into the digital audience and the feedback has been very good.”
Any planned increase of news out-put on television?
“On television we are a little bit hemmed in by the slots and the obligations that apply to all of the ITV network. We have to work together to find the best place to put our news programmes. We would love to do more news but it is a very expensive form of out-put, in fact we probably spend more money on our own news than anything else we do.
“Could we get more out of it and do more news programming – yes, we will look at that as we go forward but it’s important to have a commercially sustainable service and make sure that the material that we do have is done on a basis that is commercially viable. We have no plans to change our news, it works very well for us. We have two main programmes which have two split bulletins, so we have four local services already with the smallest which serves an audience of just 250,000 in Dundee and Perth, so that is a pretty localised service compared to of the other regions around the country.
“We see it working extremely well and it’s only since 2007 that we introduced the local service and they’ve been a great success so no plans to change our news. The real place for us to do news is online with STV Local and our iPhone app which has been an amazing success. A third of our news traffic is generated by people reading stories or watching videos on their iPhone’s. It’s a relatively small user base of iPhone consumers but because it’s so easy to use and you can get the news anywhere you are, and people like that.”
STV Group Plc owns two regional ITV Network franchises, STV North (formerly Grampian) and STV Central (originally Scottish Television). STV launched as the independent television service for Southern and Central Scotland in 1959, the STV Northern service launched in 1961.