wknd@stv

Handling

wknd@stv is a short-lived children's programming strand on Scottish television channel, STV. The block aired on Saturdays and Sundays, usually starting at 9.25am. It began on Saturday 17 January 2009 with a three-hour edition. The majority of editions were one to two hours in length.

The first series was originally scheduled to run for twelve weeks, but STV subsequently decided to extend the run, which eventually ended on 21 June, just before the Scottish school summer holidays. A second series of wknd@stv began on Saturday 15 August 2009; this ran for six weeks, ending on 20 September 2009.

Featured programming consisted of cartoons, live-action drama/comedy and gameshows, principally archive output produced or co-produced by Scottish/Grampian; there was also some imported programming to which STV holds the rights, such as Flying Rhino Junior High, which STV purchased prior to the launch of wknd@stv.

At the time of wknd@stv launching, the ITV network was not airing children's programming on weekend mornings. A networked CITV block was reintroduced in March and April 2009 and again from September 2009; STV prioritised their own show, such that in weeks where both wknd@stv and the CITV block were running, STV would screen their strand first and timeshift the CITV block to run afterwards; if there was not room to do this then the CITV block would be omitted completely in favour of the local show. In several weeks where the structure of the ITV network schedule did not permit STV to opt out and/or timeshift networked content on Sundays, only a Saturday edition would run.