In 2007, the United Kingdom began its five year programme to end analogue television broadcasts as part of the switchover to digital transmissions, with the eight transmitters covering the STV North region (Angus, Rosemarkie, Knockmore, Eitshal, Durris, Bressay, Rumster Forest and Keelylang Hill) switching over from May to October 2010.

[1][2] However, Mackenzie handed in her resignation the day before the station launched "for health reasons"; Her position was initially filled by 23 year-old Jimmy Sleigh,[3] before James Spankie came into Grampian as the permanent replacement.

[5] In the early days, Grampian struggled as viewers in a key part of its transmission area, the city of Dundee, were still tuning into coverage from STV via the strong signal of the Black Hill transmitter.

The problems in Dundee along with the effects of Television Advertising Duty and the Equity Strike led to heavy financial losses and a subsequent reduction in transmitter rental for Grampian.

Towards the end of the decade, the station's potential audience reached a million viewers and Grampian was employing just over 200 staff at their studios in Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh.

Prior to the 1968 contract round, smaller regional stations sought an affiliation with one of the four major ITV companies, who would provide the bulk of their programming.

[6] On 6 September 1974, management learned that staff producer Tony Bacon had shown banned pornographic film Deep Throat in the studio to friends the previous day, and fired him.

[7][8] Grampian refused the union's demand to challenge the firing; executives believed that the company might lose its license for the showing,[9] and that they might be prosecuted.

[8] What the media called a "sex film strike" ended on 18 September when Bacon agreed to resign, after 13 years at Grampian, and the 65 ACTT strikers returned to work.

[10] Grampian was slower than most other ITV stations to begin colour broadcasting which, after the company invested £180,000 (equivalent to £3,200,000 in 2023)[11] in new equipment, started in September 1971—an occasion timed to mark their 10th anniversary on air.

Later developments would allow Grampian to further enhance its regional news service and on air presentation, which relied heavily on in-vision continuity.

Following the station's earlier troubles, Grampian Television, along with all other ITV companies at the time, won a three-year extension to their license (later extended by a further year) in 1964.

The station had previously produced a small number of networked or part-networked productions including the daytime adult education series Katie Stewart Cooks and the light entertainment show Melody Inn.

Prior to this, Grampian had expectations of becoming one of the major players in networking new programming for ITV2 (this was before Channel 4 was created, and the inception for ITV2 was discussed at that time which never came to fruition.

The station also produced various editions of several series co-produced by most ITV regions - namely the religious programme Highway, current affairs debate The Time, The Place, documentary strand About Britain and the Saturday morning children's shows Get Fresh and Ghost Train.

Grampian also contributed to Channel 4 in the form of various documentary series including Oil (co-produced with NRK), The Blood is Strong, Alternative Energy and Scotland the Grave.

Grampian's later networked contributions were minimal, with the few exceptions including co-production of The National Television Awards from 1995 to 1997 and a daytime repeat run of local documentary series Medics of the Glen in 2004.

[19] The buyout led to various cutbacks in Grampian's staffing and programme production - notable changes included the transfer of on-air presentation from Aberdeen to Scottish Television's playout centre in Glasgow.

In June 2003, the company moved to new premises at Craigshaw Business Park in West Tullos, Aberdeen, and the original headquarters at Queen's Cross were subsequently demolished, becoming home to a development of luxury flats.

[21] Both North Tonight and Scotland Today were rebranded as STV News at Six on Monday, 23 March 2009 but continue to air as separate programmes.

In June 2003, Grampian moved to new, smaller, state-of-the-art all digital studios at Craigshaw Business Park in West Tullos, Aberdeen, some of the most advanced in the world at the time of opening.

In addition to their Aberdeen headquarters, Grampian ran a newsroom and sales office in Dundee at the entrance of the Angus Hotel in Marketgait, which also contained a film studio for interviews.

In 1983, a further district newsroom and remote-controlled studio was opened at Huntly Street, Inverness, aimed at improving coverage of the Highlands and Islands.

In the early 1980s a new black background ident was introduced (placing a greater emphasis on the text, now including the word "TELEVISION", with a smaller saltire), along with a newer version of the "Scotland the Brave" jingle.

Grampian's first computer generated ident was introduced in January 1985 and featured various diamond and dot shapes flying around in space, changing colour against an electronic tune.

As the ident progresses, the dots move closer, and the diamonds bend so that it becomes a three-dimensional saltire shape as the "Scotland the Brave" music begins to be more noticeable.

In-vision continuity was relied upon heavily by Grampian - from the early 1980s onwards, the station's duty announcers also presented short regional news bulletins, including the North Headlines at closedown, and the daily Birthday Spot for children.

Programming produced by Grampian Television (STV North) since 1961 include: Outside broadcast coverage of various sports including league football, cross country, lawn bowls, shinty, professional wrestling (for the ITV network's World of Sport), marathons, cycling, exhibition tennis, international amateur boxing, curling, triathlon and mountain bike racing.

An expanded archive of selected factual and entertainment output from Grampian Television continues to be uploaded to the STV Player's YouTube channel.