The station does not carry ITV1 branding or show ITV1's network presentation except during news broadcasts, and between 6am and 9.25am, when it is replaced by the ITV-owned-and-branded national franchise ITV Breakfast.

[1] In January 2007, the station launched separate news services for the East and West of the STV Central region, initially as a five-minute opt out within the 6:00pm edition of Scotland Today on weeknights.

STV were awarded local TV licences in January 2013 to operate two digital television channels in Glasgow and Edinburgh respectively, for up to 12 years.

[2] STV Glasgow launched on Monday, 2 June 2014 with an expanded schedule of local news, features and entertainment programming.

[3] The practice of dropping networked shows had been in operation for other programmes since November 2008 when STV announced it would opt out of programmes they claimed were not performing well in their broadcast region, including Sharpe's Peril, Al Murray's Happy Hour, Moving Wallpaper, Benidorm and The Alan Titchmarsh Show.

[4][5] STV launched its own legal action against ITV plc,[6] claiming the company was owed money and unhappy about promotional advertising of their services.

[7] Amid many protests, the company's chief executive Rob Woodward admitted in December 2009 that STV had made a 'major mistake' by dropping some of the networked dramas and replacing them in some cases with imported output, repeats and films.

The deal would see STV and UTV become "affiliates" of the network, meaning they would pay an up-front fee for the rights to broadcast ITV content.

At the time, the licence holders paid a percentage of the Channel 3 network costs based on their share of qualifying revenue.

[14] In March 2010, The Daily Telegraph reported that Ofcom would launch an investigation over claims that STV allowed the Scottish Government to influence its schedules and replace networked series with Scottish-based programmes.

[15] An Ofcom report released four months later cleared STV of allowing political interference within feature series, but 18 short social action programmes were found to have been influenced too closely by sponsorship from Government agencies and initiatives.

[18] Today, news and current affairs forms the bulk of STV's regular programming on Channel 3, which includes the topical analysis programme Scotland Tonight.

The company formerly produced many Gaelic programmes, some of which are now shown on the Gaelic-language channel, BBC Alba, including Speaking our Language and Machair.

The association with Cowcaddens ended in July 2006 when the station moved to new, smaller studios in Pacific Quay, alongside the Glasgow Science Centre.

STV North's Aberdeen headquarters moved to new smaller studios in the city's Tullos area in June 2003, vacating a converted tram depot that had been used since Grampian Television's launch in September 1961.

Around the time of the station's launch, Grampian also established premises in Dundee, later moving to Albany House in 1980 and Harbour Chambers in 1998.

Grampian opened a base for local Highlands & Islands newsgathering in Inverness in 1983, situated in Huntly Street, which has since re-located to Stoneyfield Business Park.

The studios closed in 2000 following the axing of the Gaelic news service, Telefios, but are now part of MG Alba which took over the site as its headquarters.

This flipping increases in pace and as the camera pulls back before the STV logo forms against a gradient blue background.

Website builder, Dog Digital helped launch the new-look site in July 2006, with the aim of being Scotland’s main source of online information and entertainment, targeting a wide Scottish audience, with a younger market bias.

Over the coming months, the various sections of the site were updated with the new layout, and more programme pages were created, including for shows from the ITV Network.

[34] The site was supported by a multi-million pound media campaign including TV, Radio, Cinema, Online, Direct and Outdoor Advertising.

In July 2009, the Video section of the site was relaunched as "STV Player", with added functionality, including parental controls and TV schedules.

STV Local,[39] an initiative which aimed to create a network of hyper-local websites across Scotland, was launched in June 2011.

The local services were closed in July 2013, before the launch of dedicated websites for the cities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow later that year.

[40] The Scottish Children’s Lottery operated independently of STV in accordance with the requirements of the licences from the UK Gambling Commission.