Calls for Scottish Broadcasting Corporation

Two nationalist MSPs are calling for BBC Scotland to become autonomous,with full commissioning and scheduling powers,reports the Glasgow Evening Times.
Meanwhile, Charles Allen is threatening to make ITV programmes available to digital viewers only, says Media Bulletin.
Will either of the above ever happen?

The first one - hard to justify as long as Scotland remains part of the UK. While BBC Scotland should be given more powers, and in my opinion a Scottish Six (as long as they learn not to fill it with the same crap that inhabits Reporting Scotland), I don't think you can justify a separate channel for a nation of five million versus 50 million, no matter how different it is. If people want Scotland to have a completely different identity, TV channels, and everything else, they should vote for independence.

The second one - ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha and again, ha. Sheer bluff in a bid to get the government to cut (or get rid of) the fees ITV pays to broadcast. The government would have to be incredibly stupid to fall for it, and they're a lot of things, but they ain't stupid. ITV could not afford, at the present time, to become digital only. They're in a privileged position at the moment, broadcasting to the large proportion of viewers who don't have don't have multi-channel TV. They should be providing public service broadcasting, such as proper regional TV, in return, but instead they're getting rid of everything and whining about paying fees. The government should file this request in the bin.

If it did happen, they'd have to surrender their digital terrestrial slot - the only reason they, along with the other 4 analogue broadcasters have gauranteed and much prize chunk of spectrum is because they are terrestrial broadcasters.

Would ITV want to risk being satellite only?

ooooh *rubs hands* then the 5 million licence fee payers could fund bbc scotland themselves - freeing up a bit more money for english viewers.


*radical idea* - itv's analogue frequencies and the privileged number 3 position on the EPG could be used by a network of independent regional stations.

Well, they'll be commiting commercial suicide if they do that I reckon. Perhaps in a few years when most of the population goes digital this would be feasible. I can't see it happening myself because of the following quote from that article. important bit in bold:

The Scottish BBC debate is on Newsnight Scotland now for those interested.

Well all very interesting. The politicians from both the SNP and Labour have come across as completely insane, especially Labour. Brian Wilson is arguing that we shouldn't have a separate English speaking Scottish TV channel, but we should have a Gaelic Digital TV channel. So we should, instead of having a channel which aims to provide a special service for Scottish viewers (who are a significant minority in the UK), having a channel for about five people in the Outer Hebrides who probaby can't receive it anyway. Nuts.

The SNP argument is a strange one - it appears to be working on the principal that BBC Scotland should be a channel opting in to the network rather than opting out. It would choose which network programmes it wanted to show, and make its own programming to go with that. In other words, pretty much what Scottish Television used to do. Interesting, but it ain't ever gonna happen, although I am slightly more persuaded of its merits than I was before. They'd be in a much stronger position if they continued to argue for a Scottish Six, and perhaps took the argument from there.

Personally I don't think there's an argument for a completely separate BBC Scotland, as long as we remain part of the UK, but I'd argue there should be more autonomy. We are a separate nation, not a region, and as was argued, too much of the news broadcast up here (health and education matters for England and Wales, what David Beckham had for breakfast and Ian Wright ) is irrelevant to viewers in Scotland.

Mind you, gawd knows what the Channel Islands thinks of their news...

The middle ground which came from both extremist views was that in a digital age, Scotland should afford itself a platform to showcase it's talents.

There *is* a digital Gaelic channel. Its called teleG and it appears to run for one hour on Freeview channel 8 (Scotland). Apart from the MHEG screen I'm looking at now I've never actually seen it during a broadcast.

What, precisely, would be the point in a Scottish Six? National (Scottish) news is covered in Reporting Scotland, which leaves only the same international news that what would be sourced from the newsgathering operation in London (unless BBC Scotland wanted to go nuts and establish its own newsgathering bureau). The only difference would be that where the network Six would get additional stories about motorway tolls in England and farmers in Wales, they'd be able to fill it up with similar stories from around Scotland... which should be covered in Reporting Scotland anyway.

I really can't my head around this fierce nationalism that makes Scotland so odious. This idea that branding everything with the word 'Scotland' makes it miles better or radically different falls some way short of the reality that Scottish "nationalism" - in truth, little more than a countrywide identity crisis - is in fact a torrential shower of píss.

Let's not forget here that it is only 2 MSP's calling for these changes. We are not all out marching the streets with petitions. Political parties have to be seen to taking a stance for 'Scotland’s issues' but that isn’t necessarily representative of the average Scottish person’s views. It certainly doesn't say we are in a national identity crisis - most of us are focused on more important issues instead of being nationalist for the sake of it.

The only reason I could see the Scottish Six being of benefit is when the news is about the latest figures or proposed change of law. You could listen in to a news item only to find half way through it 'would only affect England and Wales'. A Scottish six would allow for these stories to be covered but with a more Scottish slant - if the change of law isn't relevant then what does Scotland have in place? Should we change too? etc etc. However at the end of the day I don't think the Scottish Parliament has enough power in making change to justify coming from a Scottish slant for a whole hour.

Exactly - very often stories covered use 'data for England and Wales', council tax rises in England etc., that does not affect Scotland at all.

I seem to remember, just after devolution, BBC News mentioned the fact when a story applied to England and Wales more often. They seem to have largely forgotten about this now. There was also a distinct increase in coverage of Scotland only issues, but that seem to have declined.

I don't expect viewers in London to have to put up with too many irrelevant Scottish stories, but neither do I want to be confused by English stories about education and legal matters.

I'm not a rampant nationalist, but I do think there is a good case for a more independent scottish TV service. I'd like to see one completely Scottish channel, the only question is it's viability.

I've got nothing against Gaelic, but realistically only 1% of the Scottish population actually speak it now. There is no arguement for more Gaelic programmes.

My suggestion is to make channel 2 in Scotland controlled in Scotland with more and more regional programmes. Run by BBC Scotland, but having a new non-BBC identity. BBC One would not get so many regionally variations, but would do so when necessary.

BBC2 England should be made available on Freeview in Scotland too.