Scots TV news set for regional split

Published on Friday 10 June 2005 01:21

SCOTTISH viewers are to get regionalised news programmes within 18 months, it was announced last night.

Scotland's two main ITV areas, Grampian and Scottish TV, will create local sections within their flagship regional news bulletins in the early evening.

STV's Scotland Today will divide along east-west lines, with different items being seen in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In the Grampian region, different versions of the 6pm North Tonight bulletin will be seen by viewers in Aberdeen and Highlands and Islands, and those in Perthshire, Tayside and Fife.

The Glasgow-based Scottish Media Group (SMG), which runs both ITV franchises , was cleared to create the services as the telecoms watchdog Ofcom set new targets for quotas of Scottish-made programmes.

Both 6pm programmes will open with the most important story for the Scottish TV or Grampian region, switch to local opt-outs, and then return to the main transmission for sport. Only the main 26-minute evening programmes will be localised.

In a separate development, Ofcom gave its approval yesterday for a Scottish version of the ITV 10:30pm news bulletin.

However, that prospect appeared to be fading last night, as SMG argued it needed public funding to subsidise the 3 million-a-year cost.

SMG has already held talks with ITN, the national news provider for ITV, to discuss the creation of a Scottish 10:30pm programme with the same look and feel as that fronted by Sir Trevor McDonald.

Ofcom says that it is unable to provide any subsidy and believes localised news services are a higher priority.

The regulator also set a date of January 2007 for the launch of a new digital channel for Gaelic programming.

In return for providing a contribution of between 300,000 and 500,000 over the next three years, SMG will be allowed to reduce the amount of Gaelic programmes it shows in peak period on STV and Grampian from 26 hours a year to six.

By 2009, when the Gaelic channel is up and running, neither STV nor Grampian will be under any obligation to broadcast Gaelic programmes.

Ofcom said that STV and Grampian should both produce 5.5 hours of regional news programmes a week. STV should also make 2.5 hours of non-news programmes - for example documentaries and sport - every week, with Grampian's 1.5-hour target reflecting its smaller transmission area.

Ofcom will also allow Scottish broadcasters to reduce the amount of local non-news programmes they make, as Scotland starts the switchover to digital television in 2008.

Vicki Nash, Ofcom's director for Scotland, said: "Audiences tell us they value programming that reflects the distinct identity, culture and interests of Scotland. We believe our proposals will meet that need."

Michael Matheson, the SNP's culture spokesman, said he welcomed the creation of a digital Gaelic channel.

However, he said: "I am concerned many people will not have access to it in rural parts of Scotland after switchover."

• The threat of further industrial action at the BBC faded last night, after talks between unions and Mark Thompson, the corporation's director- general. Union leaders suspended the threat of strikes after the BBC agreed a framework to discuss plans to cut 4,000 posts.