STV (Scottish Television) has confirmed it will close its struggling second channel STV2, as it seeks to move more content online. The closure will result in 59 job losses.

STV’s new chief executive, Simon Pitts, who took the reins from Rob Woodward in January 2018, set out plans to drive viewers to STV Player, with more than a third of profits expected to come from outside linear TV advertising by the end of 2020.

“We have had to make some tough decisions but I think STV has to modernise to prepare us for the current state of news consumption, in order to be able to compete as other organisations have done,” said Pitts. “There are also competitive issues at play, BBC Scotland has 15 times the programme budget of STV2. To reach break-even we would have had to increase the audience and commercial returns five-fold. BBC Scotland would have made that even more difficult than it already is.”

“We have had to make some tough decisions but I think STV has to modernise to prepare us for the current state of news consumption, in order to be able to compete as other organisations have done,” added Pitts.

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