SCOTLAND getting a “fair share” of the licence fee could lead to an additional £100 million investment, an extra 1,500 jobs, and more relevant editorial control, according to the Scottish Government.
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop made the claims as she unveiled the Government’s blueprint on broadcasting.
The document, released ahead of the BBC’s charter publication, calls for “a fairer share of the licence fee that is raised in Scotland” to be “invested here”.
It also argues that BBC Scotland should have “greater control over its budget, and be given meaningful commissioning power, and to be held to account by a new Scottish Board.”
The Government also calls for “more relevant editorial content for Scottish audiences”, a direct appeal to the corporation to create the Scottish Six, a replacement for the Six O Clock news and Reporting Scotland, that would be made and anchored north of the border, with a running order of Scottish, UK and international stories.Hyslop said: “Scotland has clear and distinct needs and it’s vital the requirements of our audiences, our production sector and those in our wider creative industries are met. The Scottish Government’s proposals lay out measures for increased transparency and accountability, which will help the Corporation listen to and reflect its audiences.
“A fairer share of the licence fee money raised in Scotland being spent in Scotland could also deliver up to an additional £100m of investment in our creative industries, supporting up to 1,500 jobs and contributing an additional £60m to the Scottish economy.
“Throughout this entire process we have sought to work constructively with the UK Government and the BBC, in order to shape a charter that both reflects the reality of devolution.”
This week has seen a resurgence in people making the case for a Scottish Six after the national bulletin spent time on the UK government’s plans to reintroduce grammar schools, an issue with little relevance in Scotland.
The columnist Iain Macwhirter tweeted: “Forthcoming debate about English grammar schools likely to dominate BBC news and make case for Scottish Six (and more) unanswerable.”
The Government’s blueprint claims “the current coverage of both national and international news and current affairs by BBC Scotland is insufficient in both scope, scale and quality of output”, and argues for a “more comprehensive approach to the news”, giving a “greater voice for Scottish journalists on Scottish issues in the UK network as well as on national and international stories for the Scottish network cannot now be resisted”.
Earlier in the week reports suggested tensions between bosses at BBC Scotland and a London executive after he attacked the quality of Scottish Six pilots made to show how the programme could look.
BBC director of news James Harding dismissed the three pilots made by journalists in Scotland, and all fronted by Jackie Bird, saying “none really worked”. A BBC Scotland insider told the Daily Record: “James Harding was given a viewing of the three pilots after they were produced in the spring.
“But when he gave his verdict it was a slap in the face. He then went on to repeatedly talk about what a disaster it would be if a Scottish Six was commissioned and turned out to be a load of rubbish.
“Executives up here perceived him as patronising and metrocentric, spouting about how us Scots can’t turn around the same standard of programme as the ones they produce in London.
“That’s insulting because Scottish journalists have always been very highly represented in the top jobs at the BBC in London.”
Harding was speaking at a Question Time event at the Edinburgh TV Festival, chaired by Kirsty Wark, when she asked if there was a possibility the Scottish Six would be “batted into the long grass”, he said: “We did a run of pilots to take a look at it and none of them really worked, so now we want to take another look.”
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