BBC Audience Council Scotland Report

The Role of the BBC Audience Council for Scotland

The BBC Audience Council for Scotland advises the Trust on how well the BBC delivers its public purposes from the perspective of licence fee payers in Scotland. It is consulted on all relevant Trust business, such as public value tests and service reviews. It engages with audiences, and publishes a report each year assessing how well the BBC is meeting the needs of licence fee payers in Scotland.

In this document, the Council assesses BBC performance by monitoring progress against priorities set for 2007/08 and setting new priorities for the year ahead. It also reviews the performance of BBC Scotland against the BBC public purposes, and then describes the work of the Council, including a summary of submissions it has made to the Trust.

Progress on priorities

During the year there has been progress on a number of key issues such as the BBC/Gaelic Media Service proposal for a Gaelic Digital Service, network commissions from Scotland, and the coverage of Scottish affairs on BBC network news.

In January 2008 the Trust approved the proposed Gaelic Digital Service. However, carriage on Freeview is to be subject to a review before digital switchover in central and northern Scotland in 2010. Although the Council acknowledges that there have been improvements in levels of network commissioning from Scotland, and in network news coverage of Scottish affairs during the year, the main achievement has been in addressing the issues more robustly and setting more challenging ambitions for the future. Delivering significant improvements in practice remains a priority for the future.

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