Election coverage results in ratings success for stv

YESTERDAY, Spike reported the boost to BBC Scotland’s online service, courtesy of the Scottish Parliament elections.

As reported in The Scotsman, also yesterday, the elections had a similarly beneficial impact on rival broadcaster, stv.

According to the station, Scotland Today and North Tonight beat, as far as ratings are concerned, the BBC Six O’Clock News and BBC Scotland’s Reporting Scotland for three consecutive weeks.

On the day of the result, more Scots watched stv news than any BBC news programme.

It declared: “This achievement reverses a pattern of many years.”

For the final week of the election, stv’s share of viewing was 4.3 percentage points higher, at 28.1 per cent, against Reporting Scotland, at 23.8 per cent.

On Friday, its one-hour election special attracted 426,000 viewers, “which is a fantastic 30 per cent share, and easily won its slot”.