Coronation Street and Emmerdale timeslots change in STV schedule revamp

Coronation Street is moving to three one-hour long episodes a week from March as part of a STV schedule revamp.

Fans will now be able to watch the long-running soap from 8pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The shake-up will also see Emmerdale moved to a 7.30pm slot.

Scotland’s most watched news programme STV News will remain in its usual slot of 6pm but the ITV national and international evening news bulletin will be extended to an hour and run from 6.30pm-7.30pm every night.

Scotland Tonight will be moved to the slighter later time of 8.30pm on Thursdays as a result.

Bosses say the revamped ITV News bulletins will bring more live coverage and a greater focus on reporting from outside of London to reflect more of the UK.

Commenting on the schedule changes, Bobby Hain, MD of Broadcast at STV, said: “News and current affairs are the cornerstone of our service in Scotland.

“With STV News at Six continuing in its usual slot, and Scotland Tonight moving to the slightly later time of 8.30pm on a Thursday, viewers in Scotland will continue to receive the trusted, relevant facts and analysis they rely on from STV, as part of this new-look early evening schedule.

“Coronation Street and Emmerdale are amongst the most popular shows in Scotland, so we know that viewers will enjoy the new schedule line-up.

“And as usual, our news, current affairs and the soaps are all available to stream on STV Player.”

ITV’s managing director of media and entertainment, Kevin Lygo, said: “Our evening news programme reached an impressive 35.6 million viewers in 2021.

“We are very excited to be announcing this investment in what is an important public service strength of ITV – high-quality, impartial, trusted broadcast journalism – at a time when it could not be more important.”

The new hour-long national and international news programme is due to expand on the current 30-minute programme and will continue to be presented by Mary Nightingale.

ITV is also due to recruit a host of new talent, including 27 new journalists, producers and multi-skilled camera operators/video editors, to accommodate the expansion.

The new appointments include correspondents being taken on in Scotland, Wales and the north of England.