BBC Audience Council Scotland Report

Representing the audience

At their monthly meetings, members of the Council discussed BBC content with management and raised issues of concern which had emerged from engagement activities. The Council tracked progress on the issues it had set as priorities for the year. At the year end a report was made to the Trust on these and other issues, as outlined in the sections on Performance against Priorities for 2007/08 and Priorities for 2008/09. Monitoring progress towards digital switchover, scheduled for the Border area in November 2008, was another priority. The Council met Digital UK's National Manager for Scotland in November 2007, and there was a follow-up meeting with Digital UK's Regional Manager, Border in March 2008. Representatives of the Council met with the Scottish Broadcasting Commission in April and June 2008 to discuss issues of common interest.

Submissions were made to consultations held by the BBC Trust, some of the main points of which are summarised below. The submissions may be read in full at bbc.co.uk/acs

Submissions to consultations

Consultation on Audience Engagement – September 2007

The Council felt that, although a careful balance needed to be struck, the Trust could make more use of the BBC's own channels and services to stimulate responses from viewers, listeners and users. Licence payers would be more likely to engage with the Trust or the Council itself once it had been demonstrated that the Trust could deliver changes which benefi ted audiences. The Trust should therefore work to develop ways of reporting back to audiences on results which have been achieved.

Consultation on BBC high definition television channel – October 2007

The Council agreed with the Trust's provisional conclusions that the proposed service would deliver significant public value to licence fee payers. The service would significantly promote the BBC's digital purpose of helping to deliver the benefits of emerging communications and services to the public.

The Council expressed concerns about a number of technical, scheduling and access issues regarding the proposed service. The Trust was urged to clarify to licence fee payers that no additional subscription would be payable to commercial providers to access BBC high definition services received on satellite and cable.

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