| Thistle TV | |
| Closed Date: | |
| Owner: | Thistle Television Ltd |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Area: | Lanarkshire |
| Replaced: | Lanarkshire TV |
| Availability Note: | (at time of closure) |
| Terr Serv 1: | ITV Digital |
| Terr Chan 1: | Channel 48 |
Thistle TV was a locally broadcast commercial television station for Lanarkshire, Scotland, which launched as "Lanarkshire TV", and operated from April 1999 until May 2005.
Lanarkshire TV (LTV) was set up with a £2,000, four-year licence from the ITC and was the model for up to 60 other local television stations that were expected to start transmitting in subsequent years. The channel began broadcasting on 11 April 1999.
Ahead of its launch, managing director John MacKenzie told The Herald newspaper: "LTV will cover both local and national issues which directly or indirectly affect the people of Lanarkshire."[1]
The station broadcast from the former Hartwood Hospital near Shotts, which had previously been used as a mental health facility. Because of that link, the channel was often dubbed "Loony TV".
Broadcasting on Channel 67 on the ONdigital platform, it was on 24 hours a day, offering local news, chat shows and weather and travel bulletins. It also broadcast a mixture of locally produced programmes and newer films. It also aired content such as a talent show called "Talented Lanarkshire", a quiz programme called Remote Control, which was once broadcast from Lanark Grammar School, and a local constable appealing for witnesses in a small-scale version of Crimewatch. Tall Tales had a puppet called "Bookworm" reading to the under-fives. And the nature slot, Animal Magic, saw a camera crew dispatched to the zoo. The cookery programme amounted to a visit to a local restaurant, where the chef of the house cooks a meal.
Less than a year after launch, it was reported in March 2000 that the station was nearing closure because of financial problems. The failure to pay any of its 32 staff since Christmas Eve 1999, prompted Shereen Tulloch, the breakfast show anchor, to leave suddenly. Her colleagues said she left "to become a weather girl in London" but, whatever the reason, it spelt the end of Good Morning Lanarkshire. Since the beginning of March 2000, LTV broadcasts began at 4pm.
Despite heavy criticism from newspapers, the ITC heaped praise on the station. Speaking to the Independent newspaper, one ITC staff member commented:
"The problem is that the management was overambitious at the beginning, trying to broadcast from 8am till midnight, with 90 per cent of the output home produced. But there is still a lot of commitment to make this work."[2]
Thistle TV replaced Lanarkshire TV in 2001. The new service was broadcast to a wider catchment area, extending southwards from Airdrie to include much of East Kilbride, Hamilton, Motherwell, Wishaw, Larkhall, Strathaven and rural areas of South Lanarkshire,[3] and interspersed its local material with simulcasts of Sky News and the QVC shopping channel. However, it failed to attract enough investors or advertisers and stopped broadcasting in May 2005.[4]