SEVERAL buzzwords or phrases were delivered at BBC Scotland’s headquarters in Glasgow yesterday as bosses unveiled the open-plan studio set for the new TV channel’s hour-long news programme The Nine.
Reflect, original, inclusive and informal were among them as BBC Scotland’s head of news and current affairs, Gary Smith, faced the press, alongside Hayley Valentine, editor of The Nine and its co-presenters Rebecca Curran and Martin Geissler.
READ MORE: BBC Scotland unveils set for news show The Nine as launch nears
The new channel – confusingly called BBC Scotland – will aim to “reflect Scottish life” and The Nine will strive to “reflect back to people across Scotland their own lives”; “be conversational and informal and inclusive”; with a focus on “original journalism, original stories”.
However well-intentioned, the team know the difficulties that face them, not least attracting an audience from a viewer base of zero.
Valentine told me she hadn’t been given an audience target, but she was certain that she’d know if the figures were bad.
Smith admitted: “It’s a difficult thing starting up a new channel when you’ve got to build an audience from scratch, so we’re deliberately not focussing on figures at the beginning to set ourselves targets like that.
“We’re focussing on the appreciation of the audiences … and we’ll judge it like that.”
Geissler said it was good motivation, and added: “You’ve got to earn an audience.”
To do that, BBC Scotland has hired 80 journalists, including its first Europe correspondent in 20 years and James Cook, the BBC’s North America correspondent who will return to Scotland in January to take up his “open” brief.
The team are also relying on a tried and trusted format that has served BBC Radio Scotland well over many years – a mix of Scottish, UK and international news – and which, for many, formed the basis of a well-grounded argument for the “Scottish Six”.
However, if you are of the vintage to recall Radio Scotland’s “radiovision” experiment from almost 40 years ago, you will appreciate why that might not be such a good idea.
Today’s ever-changing technology should make the technical side of The Nine crew’s work easier, but audience perception is very important, as is the ability to change viewers’ habits, offering them something that won’t leave them feeling as if they’ve been robbed.
There was a furore, for instance, when the BBC axed the Nine O’clock News back in 2000, replacing it with a 10pm bulletin.
Smith says 9pm was chosen for BBC Scotland because there is no other television news bulletin at this time.
He said: “Nine is the time a lot of our potential viewers like the sound of – they don’t have the time to sit down and focus on the news at teatime and for some 10pm is, frankly, quite late.”
As a former head of news at Radio 5Live, Valentine is confident that The Nine will give viewers everything they need.
She added: “We want to bring audiences stories they won’t find anywhere else.
“We are looking at fresh, creative and engaging ways of telling stories that matter to Scottish audiences.”
Something to reflect upon perhaps?
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