Advertising costs from the last 5 years on STV North: FOI release

Information requested

How much a) the Scottish Government, and b) Scottish Government Executive Agencies, have spent in each of the last five financial years - a) 2024-2025, b) 2023-2024, c) 2022-2023, d) 2021-2022, and e) 2020-2021 - on advertising with STV North [described by STV Commercial as North (Aberdeen and Dundee)].

Response

In response to part a) of your request, we are unable to provide the information requested on advertising expenditure broken down by television broadcaster because an exemption under section 33 of FOISA applies. This is because disclosure of the information would (or would be likely to) substantially prejudice the commercial interests of the organisation (section 33(1)(b)).

All Scottish Government media buying and planning is undertaken via agencies appointed through the Media Planning, Buying and Associated Services Framework Agreement – Ref. SP-18-007, and never directly with media owners or channels. Using standard media buying software, common to the sector, media buying agencies can access data showing the volume of media purchased by their competitors.

Providing the costs alongside this available data would therefore enable competitors to determine the buying rates (price) for individual media companies. This information is highly commercially sensitive within the sector and disclosure would materially disadvantage the Scottish Government contractor. Providing the specific expenditure for a newspaper or outlet would potentially allow competitors of the media buying agency to calculate the rates negotiated by the appointed media buying agency who work on behalf of the Scottish Government. 

When purchasing advertising space with STV, media buying agencies always purchase for the whole of Scotland as standard, and this therefore includes all regions including STV 'North' (Aberdeen and Dundee).

Scottish Government marketing and advertising spend is published each year and can be found at https://www.gov.scot/collections/marketing-spend/ including a breakdown by media type and includes television advertising expenditure.

In response to part b) of your request, under section 17(1) of the FOISA Act, the Scottish Government does not have the information requested regarding Executive Agencies. You may wish to contact the specific Executive Agencies separately for this information.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.