S2 was a television station broadcast throughout the Scottish and Grampian ITV regions by SMG plc, the holder of the Scottish and Grampian region ITV franchises. The channel existed for two years, from April 1999 until July 2001.
History
S2 launched on the digital terrestrial platform ONdigital (The channel was also broadcast on cable television services NTL and Telewest) on 30 April 1999. Broadcasting from 4pm and 2am, the channel was targeted towards a 15- to 34-year-old youth audience and aired a mixture of drama and documentary programmes from the Scottish and Grampian libraries and a spree of new programmes. The channel's flagship programme, an entertainment programme named S2 Live, aired every night, presented by Sarah Heaney. S2 also broadcast sports coverage, including Scottish rugby.[1]
By the beginning 2001, the channel had all but lost its original intentions after removing almost all of its Scottish programmes and mostly became a simulcast of ITV2, but covered the ITV2 graphic with an opaque S2 graphic. This change caused controversy.[2]