Your Noon Briefing: STV’s indyref coverage on Sept 18, and what of the BBC’s?, etc

BEGINS a media announcement by STV: “STV has confirmed an extensive overnight results programme on Thursday 18 September, presented by Bernard Ponsonby and Aasmah Mir, with live reports from all 32 declarations across Scotland and complemented by in-depth online coverage on stv.tv throughout the night.

“On the day of the crucial vote, Thursday 18 September, STV will bring viewers comprehensive programming starting with a special edition of STV News at Ten at 2200, presented live from Edinburgh by John MacKay, which will mark the end of the referendum campaign and report the story of Scotland’s historic vote, with coverage from across Scotland.

“From 2240 until 0600, STV will broadcast an all-night results programme, Scotland Decides. The programme will be hosted by political editor, Bernard Ponsonby, and TV and radio presenter, Aasmah Mir, with a panel of leading politicians, commentators and analysts, and STV’s news teams will report live from all 32 declarations across Scotland as they happen through the night. Extensive online coverage will be provided on stv.tv with result updates and analysis throughout the night.”

Read more, here.

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MEANWHILE, begins The Drum media and marketing magazine: “STV has denied claims from David Cameron on Prime Minister’s Questions that it ‘ran away’ from the opportunity to have the Tory leader on the channel to discuss the Scottish independence referendum.”

Read more, here.

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WRITES John Plunkett, in The Guardian: “The BBC’s coverage of the Scottish independence referendum could be disrupted after trade unions voted to strike in protest at proposals to cut more than 400 posts in the corporation’s news division.

“BBC management is understood to have begun to draw up contingency plans if the National Union of Journalists – which has indicated it will begin a ‘work to rule’ next week – and broadcasting union Bectu target the 18 September referendum.”

Read more, here.

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ALSO begins the Glasgow-based The Drum (here): “The Drum’s online audience has grown to another record level in August as over 1,100,000 users came to the website.

“The site recorded 1,101,438 unique users during August, a year on year increase of 80 per cent, while sessions grew by 61 per cent to reach 1,337,103 for the month.”

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AND Stephen Lepitak – again in The Drum – reports: “Almost two-thirds of marketing and communications agency bosses in Scotland plan to vote No in the Scottish independence, The Drum has discovered, with over half stating they didn’t believe client spend would be improved in the short-term within an independent Scotland.”

He continues: “The Drum received 53 responses from marketing and communication agency chiefs to its anonymous survey around their views on how Scottish Independence would affect the sector north of the Border. Of the respondents, 60.38 per cent revealed they planned to vote No in the forthcoming referendum, however over a third (37.74 per cent) said they would vote Yes, and one person was undecided.”

Read more, here.

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SOME Scots names – including STV Productions (ranked 45=) and Tern TV (ranked 75=) – are to be found in a list of the top 100 TV production companies compiled by the trade magazine, Televisual.

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THE Scotland editor of The Daily Telegraph, Alan Cochrane, is angered by the First Minister, Alex Salmond, for an episode he reports involved the paper’s Scottish political reporter, Ben Riley-Smith.

Says Cochrane, Salmond produced – in front of assembled hacks – a bag of sweets to the 27 year-old Riley-Smith, who is quoted asking the First Minister if he is not being both condescening and patronising.

Read more, here.

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THE HQ of The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times newspapers has changed hands. Says The Herald today, it was a £13.7 million deal, involving Kames Capital’s Property Income Fund.

Read more, here, in Property Magazine International.

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