Reduced hours quota approved for stv

IT’S official. The broadcasting regulators, Ofcom, have confirmed what a review of public service broadcasting recommended two years ago: a reduction in non-news local programming at stv.

From the start of 2009, stv will be required to broadcast no more than three hours of non-news local programming, down one hour on the current level. A similar quota will apply to stv’s counterparts in Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands.

But for English ‘regions’, it is to drop from the current 1.5 hours to just half an hour.

A second Ofcom PSB Review is to take place next year.