STV's Central Belt news coverage in the early evening is from Monday to comprise two, separate half-hour programmes, with the East of Scotland getting for the first time its own dedicated service.
Currently STV's Central Belt news coverage has been from Glasgow, with west and east opt-outs mid-way through.
The new East of Scotland programme is being run as a pilot and the expectation last month was that its launch date was Monday past.
STV's 10.35pm news bulletin is to be similarly split down east-west lines.
Fronting the early evening programme from Edinburgh will be Juliet Dunlop. Caroline Henderson will be reporting sport.
The West of Scotland programme will have, as currently, John MacKay fronting it, with sport being reported by Raman Bhardwaj.
In a STV statement, Gordon Macmillan, Head of News at STV, is quoted, as saying: “The introduction of more localised news services for the east and west builds on the success of STV’s micro-regional bulletins which are frequently the most popular part of our news programmes.
“Based on this, and the early success of [STV's network of hyper-local websites] STV Local, I’m confident that the new services will be well received by our viewers who will appreciate these local news broadcasts, produced and presented live from both Glasgow and Edinburgh.”
