FANS of old stv favourites, such as Take the High Road and Weir’s Way, can watch again, this time on the internet, courtesy of a new service being launched today.
Described by the station as an “experimental web TV channel”, www.scotlandontv.tv is to up the stv archive to a worldwide web audience, plus test the market for possible additional web-based TV channels in the future.
Says a stv statement: “From now on viewers across the globe – be they Scottish ex-pats, or anyone with an interest in Scotland – will have the opportunity to watch classic programmes from stv’s archive, to be followed, next year, by new content made for the worldwide audience.”
It continues: “Scotlandontv.tv is testing the water with a wide range of programmes from the archive. The on-demand schedule includes the first ever episode of Take the High Road and several episodes of Weir’s Way.”
“The web tv channel has six sub-channels: News, Town & Country, Food & Drink, Sport, History and Culture.
“Every day, regional news bulletins for the north and central regions of Scotland will be uploaded, meaning that news from Scotland is available around the world at all times.”
Parent company, SMG, promises fresh material also.
New content will be added to the channel frequently and programmes will shortly be available for download. SMG is using this trial to increase its understanding of what it means to broadcast over the web and to inform its roll-out of more web TV channels next year. It will also help the company gauge the interest of viewers in the Download-to-Own or Pay-per-View emerging marketplace.
The website is to have its own, dedicated presenter, Kate Heavenor.
Says Helen Alexander, head of business development at SMG Productions: “Scotlandontv is a really exciting experiment for us. More and more people are watching TV programming via the internet and this first step enables us to take gems from the stv archive and make them available to a worldwide audience.
“As we learn more about that global audience, we will also tailor-make new content to meet their needs.”
