The importance of choice in television news and current affairs services is one of the key findings in the third interim report of the Scottish Broadcasting Commission. Since March, the Commission has been gathering evidence on the democratic importance of broadcasting in Scotland. The interim report published yesterday reveals emerging issues in the role of news programmes in informing and engaging Scottish audiences, and in whether democracy in Scotland is being fully served by broadcasters.
Public opinion seems to favour a change to the structure of early evening television news to provide one integrated programme from Scotland covering international, UK and Scottish news. 53% prefer this option, while 36% favour the status quo.
Both the BBC and the Scottish Media Group, which operates the ITV services in most of Scotland, expressed an intention of expanding their “local” video news provision (that is Scottish news at a local or regional level rather than Scotland-wide), especially in the online environment. However, the Commission says it’s concerned that such broadband initiatives would currently be unavailable to almost half the population of Scotland.
All of the broadcasters indicate a desire and willingness to provide more and improved news and current affairs output to serve audiences in Scotland better. The Commission says that, as it works towards publication of its final report in September, it will continue to invite debate and discussion on this and other issues identified in the interim report.
Andy Sennitt comments: As a half-Scot myself, I feel qualified to comment. The structure of early evening news on both the BBC and ITV is currently half an hour of news about Scotland, produced in Glasgow, and half an hour of national and international news, produced in London. The problem is that the ‘national’ news often contains detailed analysis of things that are completely irrelevant to Scotland, which has its own parliament. On the other hand, when there is a big story in Scotland this is covered in both the London and Scottish bulletins, which is unnecessary duplication and wasteful of precious airtime.
What the Scottish broadcasters want is the opportunity to make their own judgement about the relative importance of different stories, and to be allowed a full hour where they can present Scottish, UK and international news in a package tailored to the needs of the Scottish audience. The Scottish editions of newspapers replace irrelevant stories from England with something else, and it seems to me ludicrous that in 2008 the TV stations don’t have that option.
on Jun 2nd, 2008 at 04:07
Hello Andy,
The idea of a separate Scottish edition of the 6 o’clock national news on television has done the rounds in media circles for a couple of years.
This topic is very popular with the chattering classes of the media world but is not drawing that much interest with ordinary people in the street!
Certainly, media sections of The Sunday Herald and Scotland On Sunday newspapers do give generous space and strong support for a ”Scottish News At Six.”
Cost besides, there is no reason why BBC Scotland or commercial Scottish Television should not trial a Scottish version of the teatime news while Newsnight on BBC 2 has included a popular Scottish region edition at 11pm called Newsnight Scotland (Friday excepted).
There is an argument that a Scottish edition of national news might blank out other English regional important news like the recent Crewe by-election. If true, viewers to Virgin Media, Sky Digital and Internet can overcome that problem by opting out of the Scottish regional channel and select the English regional equivalent!
Regards..Willie
on Jun 2nd, 2008 at 22:25
More power to their elbow and I hope Wales and Northern Ireland follow suit. The display of all things English which are totally irrelevant in the other nations is increasing instead of decreasing. This weekend we all (Welsh, Irish and Scottish) suffered blanket coverage of England against Trinidad and Tobago on BBC TV. If either Wales, Scotland or Nothern Ireland were playing in such a must see thriller would it be on national TV or just shown on the national opt outs? The BBC are their own worst enemy and their behaviour like the weekend football match will only serve to hasten the breakup of the BBC as a national institution.
on Jun 3rd, 2008 at 08:55
Joe, unfortunately the BBC doesn’t have the rights to some of the international matches. I watched the Czech Republic vs Scotland last Friday on BBC2 Scotland, but the Netherlands vs Wales game was on Sky, not BBC Wales. That’s a pity, because I think the BBC’s Ian Gwyn Hughes is one of the best commentators around. I think the matches played by the national teams should be on the list of protected events, not exclusive to satellite TV.