:-(
A former member
Every times near an election this comes an knocking.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/13/bbc-scotland-bosses-lobby-for-scottish-six-news-programme
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/13/bbc-scotland-bosses-lobby-for-scottish-six-news-programme
Quote:
BBC executives are pressing for the corporation to commission a flagship “Scottish Six” news programme to help answer growing complaints about its weak coverage of Scottish affairs, the Guardian has learned.
Executives in BBC Scotland are expected to lobby Tony Hall, the corporation’s director general, to agree to the proposal when he comes to Glasgow next week to attend a meeting of its governing body, the BBC Trust, which will also be briefed on the plan.
They want Hall to authorise a significant expansion of its news and programme-making budget from about £35m to £100m a year when he finalises the BBC’s proposals for charter renewal next year, including funding a third national radio service for Scotland.
BBC Scotland executives are thought to be focusing on these proposals after being forced to shelve far more ambitious plans to add an extra digital television channel and new online programming in the wake of swingeing spending cuts.
Sturgeon's plan for Scottish BBC based on proposals scrapped by corporation
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Scottish executives argue the BBC has to invest substantially more in the UK’s nations and regions to allow the corporation to keep pace with accelerating devolution, by decentralising its programme-making and decision-making.
The case for a “Scottish Six” to replace the UK network Six O’Clock News on BBC1 has been championed since the 1990s by former first minister Alex Salmond, but was heavily resisted until now on spending and journalistic grounds.
The proposal, which is backed by BBC Scotland controller Ken MacQuarrie, who led the formal investigation into Jeremy Clarkson’s assault of a Top Gear producer, would involve mixing increased and improved Scottish news with the BBC’s UK news and global coverage in an hour-long programme.
Sources said Scottish correspondents working as foreign correspondents overseas or as specialists in London could be asked to contribute specifically to the new programme.
The BBC Trust refused to discuss the agenda for next week’s meeting in Glasgow, but a spokesperson said: “The trust has been consulting widely on BBC charter review over the past few months and trustees will, as you’d expect, be talking to the BBC executive, BBC Scotland management and stakeholders on a range of topics related to this.”
The corporation came under fresh pressure from Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, to increase spending and output in August, when she told the Guardian International TV festival in Edinburgh that Scottish viewers felt “frustration” at the quality and scope of its output in Scotland.
That antipathy spilled over into an angry demonstration by pro-independence activists outside BBC Scotland’s Glasgow headquarters in September, and a long-running feud between Salmond and the BBC’s then political editor Nick Robinson; Sturgeon had to intervene after one BBC Scotland correspondent, James Cook, was vilified by nationalists over his reporting of the so-called Frenchgate memo leak.
But the plan is encountering substantial resistance from BBC executives in London, who are wrestling with heavy budget cuts of around £700m, and continuing demands from rivals and the UK government to trim output and find further efficiencies.
Sources with knowledge of the discussions said extra funds for news and current affairs were being channelled towards other projects, including a beefed up Korean service. One source said the proposal “was met with laughter” by executives in London.
But BBC officials have confirmed that several proposals for a Scottish Six type programme are being debated and are likely to be finalised in early 2016 after Gary Smith, BBC Scotland’s new head of news and current affairs, takes up his post in January.
Options include a direct replacement for the BBC1 Six O’Clock news or a standalone programme which could air on BBC2 Scotland in the early evening. The BBC’s current regional news programme Reporting Scotland on BBC1 would be heavily cut back.
The Scottish Six proposal was broadly backed by Allan Little, the former BBC correspondent who covered the recent Iraq wars, Africa, Paris and the Scottish independence referendum, when he gave an annual lecture in honour of former Guardian editor and BBC Scotland controller Alastair Hetherington at Stirling university on Wednesday evening.
Little told the audience he had been tentatively approached about anchoring a Scottish Six some 15 years ago. “It was all so vague back then but it was definitely in the air,” Little said. “But there’s definitely an argument for it, and I think that argument is becoming harder and harder to answer.”
If there is to be a Scottish Six, he said its editors had to look carefully at how it was implemented, and how it would gather and share material from the UK network and content from overseas. It is thought one key issue for the BBC is how its non-BBC Scotland specialist journalists could service two separate news programmes being aired at similar times, particularly during live stories.
“I’m more worried about its implementation than in its principle. I think its principle is very clear and I think, hopefully, we will see movement in that direction,” Little said.
Executives in BBC Scotland are expected to lobby Tony Hall, the corporation’s director general, to agree to the proposal when he comes to Glasgow next week to attend a meeting of its governing body, the BBC Trust, which will also be briefed on the plan.
They want Hall to authorise a significant expansion of its news and programme-making budget from about £35m to £100m a year when he finalises the BBC’s proposals for charter renewal next year, including funding a third national radio service for Scotland.
BBC Scotland executives are thought to be focusing on these proposals after being forced to shelve far more ambitious plans to add an extra digital television channel and new online programming in the wake of swingeing spending cuts.
Sturgeon's plan for Scottish BBC based on proposals scrapped by corporation
Read more
Scottish executives argue the BBC has to invest substantially more in the UK’s nations and regions to allow the corporation to keep pace with accelerating devolution, by decentralising its programme-making and decision-making.
The case for a “Scottish Six” to replace the UK network Six O’Clock News on BBC1 has been championed since the 1990s by former first minister Alex Salmond, but was heavily resisted until now on spending and journalistic grounds.
The proposal, which is backed by BBC Scotland controller Ken MacQuarrie, who led the formal investigation into Jeremy Clarkson’s assault of a Top Gear producer, would involve mixing increased and improved Scottish news with the BBC’s UK news and global coverage in an hour-long programme.
Sources said Scottish correspondents working as foreign correspondents overseas or as specialists in London could be asked to contribute specifically to the new programme.
The BBC Trust refused to discuss the agenda for next week’s meeting in Glasgow, but a spokesperson said: “The trust has been consulting widely on BBC charter review over the past few months and trustees will, as you’d expect, be talking to the BBC executive, BBC Scotland management and stakeholders on a range of topics related to this.”
The corporation came under fresh pressure from Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, to increase spending and output in August, when she told the Guardian International TV festival in Edinburgh that Scottish viewers felt “frustration” at the quality and scope of its output in Scotland.
That antipathy spilled over into an angry demonstration by pro-independence activists outside BBC Scotland’s Glasgow headquarters in September, and a long-running feud between Salmond and the BBC’s then political editor Nick Robinson; Sturgeon had to intervene after one BBC Scotland correspondent, James Cook, was vilified by nationalists over his reporting of the so-called Frenchgate memo leak.
But the plan is encountering substantial resistance from BBC executives in London, who are wrestling with heavy budget cuts of around £700m, and continuing demands from rivals and the UK government to trim output and find further efficiencies.
Sources with knowledge of the discussions said extra funds for news and current affairs were being channelled towards other projects, including a beefed up Korean service. One source said the proposal “was met with laughter” by executives in London.
But BBC officials have confirmed that several proposals for a Scottish Six type programme are being debated and are likely to be finalised in early 2016 after Gary Smith, BBC Scotland’s new head of news and current affairs, takes up his post in January.
Options include a direct replacement for the BBC1 Six O’Clock news or a standalone programme which could air on BBC2 Scotland in the early evening. The BBC’s current regional news programme Reporting Scotland on BBC1 would be heavily cut back.
The Scottish Six proposal was broadly backed by Allan Little, the former BBC correspondent who covered the recent Iraq wars, Africa, Paris and the Scottish independence referendum, when he gave an annual lecture in honour of former Guardian editor and BBC Scotland controller Alastair Hetherington at Stirling university on Wednesday evening.
Little told the audience he had been tentatively approached about anchoring a Scottish Six some 15 years ago. “It was all so vague back then but it was definitely in the air,” Little said. “But there’s definitely an argument for it, and I think that argument is becoming harder and harder to answer.”
If there is to be a Scottish Six, he said its editors had to look carefully at how it was implemented, and how it would gather and share material from the UK network and content from overseas. It is thought one key issue for the BBC is how its non-BBC Scotland specialist journalists could service two separate news programmes being aired at similar times, particularly during live stories.
“I’m more worried about its implementation than in its principle. I think its principle is very clear and I think, hopefully, we will see movement in that direction,” Little said.