A NEW Scottish TV channel will be launching with a £30m budget, according to the BBC's director general.

Lord Hall made the announcement to staff at the BBC Headquarter's staff in Glasgow, alongside a promise for an extra £20m for BBC Scotland to produce drama and factual conetent for a UK-wide audience.

Plans for a version of a "Scottish Six" are also back on the table, as the new channel will feature an hour-long news programme with a focus on Scottish news, plus UK and international news.

This may help tackle the complaints the BBC Scotland have faced that the current news programming is often dominated by issues that do not affect Scotland, such as the NHS in England.

Hall said: "It's a channel that will be bold, creative and ambitious, with a brand-new Scotland-edited international news programme at its heart."

The First Minister responded to the announcement on Twitter, saying: "Lots to welcome in today's @bbcpress announcement. @scotgov has long argued for new BBC Scotland channel. Vital that it is funded well.

"Commitments to new investment and 80 additional jobs for journalists long overdue and very positive."

"It doesn't deliver everything that everyone wanted - e.g. no Scottish 6 disappointing - but progress and hopefully sign of new thinking."

The announcement of this new BBC channel, with a budget that will match BBC Four, comes after STV also announced that they would be launching a new flagship news programme in their new channel, STV 2.

The new BBC channel is expected to begin broadcasting from Autumn 2018.