Jeremy Peat: Trying to make sure BBC is in tune with viewers in Scotland

Published on Friday 12 December 2008 20:16

From coverage of football matches to Gaelic television, the corporation is listening to viewers, says JEREMY PEAT

AT A public meeting in Elgin a couple of weeks back, I was told that a little girl had leapt with delight when Neil Oliver uttered the name of her home town in Scotland's History on BBC One. It was another illustration for me, as a BBC trustee, of the extent to which public service broadcasting matters to audiences in Scotland.

The BBC Trust was established in 2007 as guardian of the public interest in the BBC. One of the BBC's key public purposes is to represent local and national identities and communities and the connections between them. BBC Trust research demonstrates that this purpose is less well met in Scotland than in other nations.

Hence the importance – as just one component of our efforts to ensure the BBC delivers the best possible service for the people of Scotland – of our challenge to the BBC Executive to come forward with proposals, in the context of existing television and radio services, to address this "performance gap" in a more cost-effective manner than the local video proposals that we are minded to reject.

The Scottish Broadcasting Commission (SBC) had similar ambitions to enhance, in terms of the impact on audiences and the wider economy, broadcasting in Scotland.

The trust engaged extensively with the commission, as did our advisory body, the Audience Council for Scotland (ACS). The agendas of the SBC and the trust – with the ACS – have much in common, as demonstrated by the trust's response to the proposals in the commission's report that is now being published.

As the BBC national trustee for Scotland, I have taken a particular interest in this unfolding debate and am delighted that there is so much common ground with the SBC, Indeed, I would argue that the trust, with the advice of the ACS, had already spotted the need for several of the key reforms championed by the SBC – and is already driving many of the changes necessary to improve services for BBC audiences in Scotland.

One example is the attempt, referred to above and still under debate, to provide better services to local communities. Another relates to the way Scotland has been reported on BBC network news.

Well before the SBC began its work, it was clear to me – and confirmed by what we were hearing from audiences in Scotland – that the BBC was not doing enough to ensure Scotland's affairs were reported to the rest of the UK with sufficient accuracy and relevance, or that UK news generally reflected a full understanding of the new realities of a devolved Britain.

This was a view shared by my fellow BBC trustees in relation to news coverage of all the devolved nations. The independent review we commissioned from Professor Anthony King revealed some significant failings in the performance of BBC journalism.

Following that review, I believe network news is already more relevant and reflective of communities across the UK. However, there is more to do and the trust and the audience council will be carefully monitoring progress in the year ahead.

Another issue raised by the SBC is that an insufficient amount of network BBC production is produced in Scotland. The BBC Trust agrees and believes strongly the BBC must do more to ensure the economic benefits of the licence fee are shared out more equitably.

We have set a challenging target to ensure the nations will make a share of network production at least equivalent to their share of the overall UK population. For Scotland, that would mean at least 8.6 per cent of BBC television output being made here no later than 2016.

In broad terms, the SBC supports this approach – but would like Scotland to get there sooner, by 2012. While I would welcome early achievement of this target, I take the view that what really matters here is not just a bigger share for Scotland but a bigger share that brings real benefits to our creative sector and is sustainable in the long term. That means steady, careful, embedded growth. It is more important to build well than build quickly.

There are many other issues where the agendas of the trust and the SBC overlap to a large extent. The SBC wants to see the new Gaelic service, BBC Alba, on Freeview by 2010. The ACS, too, considers the carriage of Alba on Freeview a priority. The trust wants the service to be successful and widely available, although the specific question of Freeview distribution raises issues of value for money. We will investigate this matter fully and transparently in 2009.

Also, Scottish audiences wish to watch their national football team on free-to-air television. This will be a matter for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to decide upon, but I have ensured that the trust is well aware of the strength of feeling in Scotland.

The response to the SBC report demonstrates the significant progress made on these issues by the trust. But we are not complacent, and recognise that more needs to be done for BBC audiences in Scotland.

We must monitor closely progress on areas where improvement is under way – notably, the enhancement of the network news product and commissioning. We must seek from the BBC Executive constructive proposals for better meeting the public purpose of serving local communities.

The SBC has fulfilled a very valuable purpose but is no longer with us. However, we are more than happy to continue our close engagement with the Scottish Government on all these and other related issues.

And we will continue to respond constructively to the issues brought to us by audiences in Scotland to ensure that licence payers here get the best possible service from the BBC.

&#149 Jeremy Peat is a member of the BBC Trust and the national trustee for Scotland.