ITV starts legal proceedings against STV

STV has received a formal notice of legal proceedings from ITV, which said yesterday it would take action against the Scottish broadcaster.ITV is trying to recover gross debt of £38m it says was accumulated as a result of 'STV not honouring its contractual contributions towards the Network Programme Budget.''This £15m net claim is completely without merit and will be robustly defended,' STV said today.On Tuesday, STV revealed the two groups have been in discussions for months on numerous matters, of which this is just one. Then, it said it will 'vigorously defend its position', especially its rights as the licence holder to control its schedule and opt-out of programming.ITV is currently withholding monies from STV against this debt and believes net debt is approximately £15m to £20m. 'STV is attempting retrospectively to opt out of an increasing number of peaktime programmes which contravenes existing agreements. The company is also wrongly attempting to claim a rebate against programmes which have been 'written off,' said ITV. STV said this is one of a number of issues between it and ITV. It counter alleges there is a claim against ITV relating to revenues which STV should have received under its Advertising Sales Agreement. 'Since early 2008 ITV has prevented STV's independent auditor, Deloitte, from carrying out a full review of all revenue related contracts which STV has the right to do,' said STV. 'However, on the 5% of revenues which Deloitte has been able to review, a potential shortfall of approximately £2 million (covering only 30 months of a six year period) was identified. STV will be pursuing this and further claims,' it added.