BBC should serve Scotland, not power-hungry SNP ministers – Brian Wilson

Mairi McAllan told MSPs that all she wanted was 'to have the powers over broadcasting in a way that is similar to the way we operate all other devolved powers'. Picture: Peter Summers | Getty Images

I am sorry the BBC Scotland channel will fade into history next spring without fulfilling its potential. Viewing figures suggest this places me in a small minority, most of whom have been overtaken by the pace of change in how television is consumed.

A debate at Holyrood this week revealed that fewer than half of under-25s watch any BBC channel in a year. That sums up the gulf between generations and, if the BBC is to survive, realities must be adapted to rather than denied. New channels are not, alas, the future.

The intentions behind the Scottish channel were honourable even if the marketing was lamentable. It remains one of life’s minor mysteries why BBC Scotland (which is a channel) decided to name the new channel “the BBC Scotland Channel”. Now we will never know.

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Dreary predictability of SNP’s response

I do not recall any welcome from the Scottish government when the ‘Channel’ was announced. Their objective was not to create choice but to restrict it by replacing the main BBC news with a Scottish version. The offer of an alternative was likely to undermine rather than reinforce that political demand. And so it proved.

When viewing numbers dropped to derisory levels for its flagship news programme, the Channel’s detractors were quick to crow. It deserved better but ultimately was difficult to defend when cuts came. Now the challenge should be to secure positive outcomes from its passing rather than engage in false mourning.

With dreary predictability, the Scottish government was uninterested in social trends or viewing revolutions in launching the Holyrood debate. The Channel’s demise became the cue to demand “devolution of broadcasting powers to this parliament once and for all, so that people will be accountable to this parliament for decisions that are made”.

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Powers over River City

That does rather beg the questions of which powers, which people, which decisions? Nobody seemed to have told Mairi McAllan, a specialist only in superficiality, that the independence of broadcasting “decisions” from political “powers” is a cornerstone of the BBC’s existence and, indeed, democracy.

For avoidance of doubt, Ms McAllan explained to MSPs: “All I am seeking is to have the powers over broadcasting in a way that is similar to the way we operate all other devolved powers.” I doubt if many would find that reassuring. Is BBC Scotland to become the new Transport Scotland or Police Scotland?

“In 2025,” complained Ms McAllan, “there was the end of ‘River City’ and... the BBC instigated changes to Radio Scotland’s late-night programming.” Even fans of River City and Ian Anderson might find it surprising if their fates were to fall within the province of ministers. And that’s before you get to news which is the real prize.

One positive option, which Ms McAllan doesn’t want to hear, is that the BBC’s plans could create more, rather than fewer, opportunities for Scottish programme makers by transferring output to a BBC2 Scotland, with opt-outs, iPlayer and UK-wide transmission offering much wider audiences.

Evidence for this lies in viewing figures for Highland Cops, a real success story for the BBC Scotland Channel, its couthy title belying an excellent piece of public service broadcasting which entertains and informs. The first in the current series secured 150,000 viewers, the Channel’s highest for any programme this year.

That was only people like me sitting down at the appointed hour to watch. Highland Cops is also on BBC iPlayer and goes out on BBC2 so total viewing figures for each episode top a million. In other words, Scottish programme-makers do not need a Channel to sell their wares if other platforms are accessible. That is a legitimate aim.

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SNP underfunding of Gaelic broadcasting

Ms McAllan also bemoaned the under-funding of BBC Alba, which requires either ignorance or brass neck. I know the history, having kicked off the process which eventually led to the channel. Devolution transferred responsibility for funding Gaelic broadcasting and the channel materialised in 2007 when the Lab-Lib government put in £11.8 million and the BBC made a significant commitment which it has adhered to.

If the SNP wanted to prioritise Gaelic, it has had 20 years to do so. Instead, they did the exact opposite. For a full decade, they froze funding of BBC Alba in cash terms, which is key to why it is now in dire financial straits. Only during Kate Forbes’ brief presence was a small part of that deficit restored, to £15m – still far short of the £20.8m which a simple inflation link from 2007 would now deliver.

Ms McAllan may know none of that and it certainly wasn’t in the script of grievances from which she read. It would be a measure of her trustworthiness as a minister if she preferred not to know. The money which SNP ministers – including John Swinney – deprived BBC Alba of over 20 years represents the difference between a challenge for the channel and the crisis they now face. Ms McAllan’s bubble should have been burst with one question – “why did the SNP freeze funding for a decade?”

MG Alba (the BBC’s partners in the channel) has run an admirable campaign to put it on a sustainable footing via the new BBC Charter and that is a lot more likely to succeed than a re-writing of history to evade political responsibility.

Ms McAllan’s other demand was that licence fee revenues raised in Scotland “should be re-invested in full in Scotland”. That will make sense only to anyone who believes nobody in Scotland consumes anything which emanates from outside it.

Reading Holyrood debates is almost as unfashionable as watching black and white television but I recommend this one as an exception – and as confirmation of the reasons to keep broadcasting well away from any politician in any parliament who aspires to exercising “power” over it.