Following the succesful launch of STV Edinburgh, its media manager Elizabeth Partyka says it's a relief to see the broadcaster's second local station go live. 

Partyka told the RTS it had been a stressful and busy few months in the build up to last Monday's launch, but the broadcaster was very happy to see it on air. 

Around 166,000 viewers tuned in to the new channel STV Edinburgh on launch.

The channel aims to talk about issues and stories that are not normally associated with Edinburgh. For Partyka it was about showing that there was more to Edinburgh than the Festival in August, "There's a lot going on in Edinburgh that doesn'´ find a home anywhere and that's really what the point of the channel is all about ".

When local TV was first being talked about, many felt that it would become like student TV or not quite have the same quality as national broadcasters. This was not the case for STV. Partyka said: "We hung our colours to the mast and said that both of these channels are going to be STV products that have all the brand values of all our other STV products ".

This made sense for STV as the company is already "a trusted brand that is known for "¤elivering quality news and entertainment " according to Partyka.

There have been challenges for STV's local television stations with more complicated procedure in broadcasting as third party, Comux, does transmission.

The Scottish broadcaster now plans to go beyond just the central belt for local television as they have put in applications for Aberdeen, Ayr and Dundee licenses. However as these cities are smaller the focus will be on news above other programming. Partyka said STV can offer strong and relevant local news content in those three areas that it can supplement with content from its national base. 

With a strong national brand, STV remains unique amongst local television stations.

By Alastair Ballantyne

@AJBally