2017 in Scottish television

This is a list of events in Scottish television from 2017.

Events

February

• 22 February – Tony Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC's director general, announced a new dedicated TV channel for Scotland with a £30 million budget. ^[1]

April

• 23 April – Local channels STV Glasgow and STV Edinburgh close and are replaced by a single channel STV2 which acts as a sister channel to STV. ^[2] STV2 also launches in Aberdeen, Dundee and Ayr, the three areas which STV had also been awarded a local TV licence. A single networked schedule is broadcast in all five areas.
• 24 April – The first edition of a new primetime weeknight news programme called STV News Tonight, which combines news from across all of Scotland with UK and international news, is broadcast on STV2. ^[3]
• 27 April – STV announce the first Scottish live televised leaders debate of the 2017 United Kingdom general election on 24 May, chaired by the broadcaster's political editor Bernard Ponsonby, with the leaders of four parties invited: the Scottish National Party (SNP), the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. ^[4]

May

• 5 May – BBC announces a 90-minute televised debate for the General election 2017 on 21 May chaired by Sarah Smith, with the leaders of the five main Scottish parties: SNP, Conservatives, Labour, Scottish Greens and Liberal Democrats. ^[5]

November

• 5 November – 2017 Scotland BAFTA Awards were held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow.

Debuts

• 22 January – Timeline ^[6]

Television series

• Reporting Scotland (1968–1983; 1984–present)
• Sportscene (1975–present) ^[7]
• Landward (1976–present)
• The Beechgrove Garden (1978–present)
• Eòrpa (1993–present)
• Only an Excuse? (1993–2020) ^[8]
• River City (2002–present)
• The Adventure Show (2005–present)
• An Là (2008–present)
• Trusadh (2008–present)
• STV Rugby (2009–2010; 2011–present)
• STV News at Six (2009–present)
• The Nightshift (2010–present)
• Scotland Tonight (2011–present)
• Shetland (2013–present)
• Scot Squad (2014–present)
• Still Game (2002–2007; 2016–2019) ^[9]
• Two Doors Down (2016–present)

See also

• 2017 in Scotland

References

1. Paton, Stephen (22 February 2017). "BBC to launch new Scottish channel by Autumn 2018". The National . Retrieved 22 February 2017.
2. Mayhew, Freddy (10 April 2017). "STV to launch new channel with dedicated evening news programme and hourly bulletins". Press Gazette . Retrieved 12 April 2017.
3. "STV to launch integrated Scottish and international news show". STV News. STV. 21 September 2016. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
4. Macnab, Scott (27 April 2017). "Election 2017: Scottish leaders debate on STV confirmed". The Scotsman. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
5. "General election 2017: BBC announces Scottish leaders debate". BBC News . 5 May 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
6. Miller, Phil (12 January 2017). "BBC Scotland launch new weekly current affairs show, Timeline". The Herald . Retrieved 22 February 2017.
7. "Sportscene at 50: Famous faces back for anniversary". BBC Sport. 6 August 2025. Archived from the original on 11 August 2025. Retrieved 20 August 2025.
8. "Hogmanay favourite Only an Excuse says cheerio. What did you think?". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
9. "Still Game comedy duo say Jack and Victor will not be back". BBC News. 15 February 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2022.