BBC Scotland - the launch

Scotland is and always has been a powerhouse of creativity.

The problem is that it is starved of budget just like BBC4 - a great channel still but it was once amazing.

Scotland pays more than its fair share in licence fee - they should get a bit more. That drama about the two guys and the dead body was amazing but I can't remember the name of it.

My pleasure, Roger. Welcome to the forum.

I have been here for 18 years and it is an amazing place full of great people.

Cando is a good guy/girl too and has been here for donkeys - s/he must've been having a bad day but we all have them every now and again.

Guilt. A second series has been commissioned.

Thank you so much for your greetings, and my apologies for this very late reply!

https://www.televisual.com/news/tern-secures-35-hours-of-orders/

Recommissions for Inside The Zoo (8 x 60), David Wilson's Crime Files (10 x 30) and Beechgrove (26 x 30).

Alas, for a second year running - there will be NO Xmas idents on BBC Scotland channel. There will be icy ECS and trail boards but that's all...

I had a go at trying to add a Christmas atmosphere to one of their current idents, surely it’d be better than doing nothing at all.

Hello everyone so today an article has come out in The Times...which was also reported in other newspapers which gives an overall update on the situation of this channel so here it is:
THE BBC Scotland channel has struggled to attract viewers despite airing some high-quality programmes, according to the TV watchdog.

It was launched in February 2019 with a £32million budget to provide more news and original programmes from Scotland.

But Ofcom said the channel’s flagship news programme The Nine suffered low viewing figures and failed to meet its goal of attracting a younger audience.

In an annual report on the BBC, it said the show – presented by Martin Geissler and Rebecca Curran – attracted average viewing figures of 15,890 per episode during its first year on air.

The average audience among 16 to 34-year- olds was ‘very low’, with fewer than 1,000 tuning in.

Overall, The Nine’s average audience share in Scotland was only 0.84 per cent compared with 28 per cent for Reporting Scotland on BBC One Scotland.

The channel’s most-watched show was the comedy series Scot Squad. This was followed by the documentary Murder Trial: The

Disappearance of Margaret Fleming and the vintage comedy Still Game.

The Ofcom report said: ‘Some other programmes have struggled to build an audience.’

The report said between April 2019 and March 2020, the channel had a total average viewing share of 2.1 per cent.

The watchdog s ai d t hat although still establishing itself with audiences in Scotland, ‘early i ndications suggest that the channel may have had an early positive i mpact on viewers’ impressions of the BBC’.

However, the report found Scots continue to rate BBC news coverage lower than those living in any other area of the UK.

Earlier this year, the boss of the BBC Scotland channel was appointed chief of the corporation in Scotland.

Steve Carson, 51, was announced as the replacement for Donalda MacKinnon.

He is responsible for leading the 1,100- strong BBC Scotland staff in 13 centres who produce content in English and Gaelic across services for TV, radio and digital platforms.

It came as it was announced that scores of employees were to be cut at BBC Scotland as the corporation disclosed that it would be f orced to make savings of £6.2million over this financial year.

Do you wonder how the BBC reacted to this? Well it's not surprising and also very predictable....:
A BBC spokesman said: ‘Ofcom’s view that BBC Scotland may be starting to have a positive i mpact on viewers’ perception of representation and portrayal in Scotland is very welcome as we launched the channel precisely because our audience made it clear that they want more content from us that reflects their lives.

‘It’s still early days for the channel but its impact on viewers and the significant boost it has given to the Scottish creative sector is clearly acknowledged and is heartening.”
So the BBC has always it's saying...''there is NO problem whatsoever, the channel is a massive success''

In the end I am going to show you a sober reminder of what this new data actually means:
THE new BBC Scotland channel’s viewing figures are tragically low, but that should be no surprise.
Launched at a time when televison as a timetabled viewing experience died in the battle with box sets and catch-up TV, it was never going to find elbow room in the schedules.
The news programme, the result of a political sop to demands for a Scottish Six news, ended up being a typical BBC compromise in a 9pm graveyard slot which is a disservice to the considerable talents of the people producing it.
Little loved and little watched, the channel is a classic example of the BBC tying itself in knots and pleasing no one.
At the same time, under political pressure again, the corporation is getting rid of the free licence fee for over-75s, compounding a reputation for having no proper strategy for viewers.
My real question, and I am going to put it to you guys once again is...at this point how do you see the future of this channel?

Same as before, because I expected as much from the report.

There needs to be a high hit rate of commissions from now on to rescue the channel because too many mistakes have been made already.

Thank you so much for your clear assessment