Scottish broadcasting
- 9 Aug 07, 02:28 PM
The remarks by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond are intriguing for BBC News - in their possible implications for our journalistic offering across the UK and as a story for us to cover.
The first minister characterised the debate he wanted to start as a broader one than previous arguments about the so-called "Scottish Six" - the notion that there should be a combined news hour created for Scotland that would mix international, Scottish and UK news according to overall news values as seen from Scotland.
Instead, he focused on the need for broadcasting policy to enhance the overall creative vitality of Scotland and complained about what he says has been a reduction in network production spend in Scotland by both ITV and BBC.
BBC production spend in any location can fluctuate, particularly as major drama series productions begin or end. But BBC investment in Scotland is significant. I recently visited the impressive new BBC Scotland HQ at Pacific Quay which cost £188m. To get a good return on that investment a substantial amount of UK production will need to come from there - for instance from its superb High Definition studio.
The BBC's formal audience accountability processes will be fully assessing the BBC's provision of programming in and for Scotland and through that process, dealing with the questions raised by Mr Salmond. (See BBC statements about this here and here)
For BBC News the focus will be less on cultural creativity or cash spend, important as those are, but on editorial representation. That, for audiences, is what matters most. How well, whether in drama, documentaries or news, do we represent the lives and concerns of licence payers across the UK?
At BBC News we will listen hard to what audiences tell us and respond to that. And we will work closely with our colleagues in BBC Scotland to develop editorial and technological options that allow us to meet new audience needs as the debate develops.
And as for covering the story on network news, BBC News 24 carried Mr Salmond's speech live and interviewed him subsequently and both the Six O'clock and Ten O'Clock bulletins carried the speech. Scotland Editor Brian Taylor also gave his comments on the Six, the programme that has often been in the eye of this particular storm.
Peter Horrocks is head of BBC Newsroom
