Scotland needs more tailored news bulletins, former BBC boss says

TELEVISION slots for Scottish news are “severely constrained” and viewers north of the Border should be offered an alternative to “England-only stories” shown during UK-wide bulletins, according to the BBC’s former national governor for Scotland.

Writing in The Scotsman today, Jeremy Peat backs News at 6 and News at 10 programmes for Scotland, as well as giving viewers the option of flicking over from English-only news items to watch a Scottish focused section instead.

The former broadcasting chief also calls for more BBC devolution to Scotland, as he dismissed suggestions that the corporation’s controversial headquarters move from London to Manchester had resolved the issue.

He said the “case for more and more production out of London remains and the pressure for increased devolution of programming must continue”.

Mr Peat’s strongly worded demands were welcomed by senior Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, who said there was “frustration” among many Scottish viewers about seeing the same story on national and regional TV as well as the broadcast of items that were “not particularly relevant to Scotland”.

Meanwhile, Mr Peat also says that senior figures from the BBC, such as its chairman, national trustee and director for Scotland, should be summoned to appear before MSPs annually to account for broadcasting decisions north of the Border.

He writes: “Given this interest it might be helpful for the BBC chairman, the national trustee and the BBC director for Scotland to make themselves available for an open discussion with the appropriate Holyrood committee at least once each year and – on request – when key issues arise.”

He said the shake-up was needed to address the issue of “too high a percentage of time in the UK element of the bulletin” being devoted to areas such as health and education in England, as well suggesting that Scottish news items were repeated without any changes being made in later bulletins.

He writes: “The nagging concern remains – especially when the time available for news stories across the regions of Scotland is severely constrained.

“On occasions there is a significant degree of duplication, with big stories from Scotland getting coverage in the period from 6 to 6:30pm or from 10 to 10:25pm, and then again, often in very similar terms.

“I am suggesting consideration of news programmes at six o’clock and/or 10 o’clock which work through a Scottish ‘lens’ – with emphasis and content suited to a primarily Scottish audience.”

Mr Fraser, who campaigned for the Scottish Tories to split from the UK party, said: “There are often things on the national news that are not particularly relevant to Scotland, so I’d support a proposal to give people that option of a more Scottish-focused news programme, as long as there’s still the choice to watch the UK bulletins.”

Labour MSP John Park said: “Having more regional aspects of TV news on the BBC is a move I’d support, but I’d go further and say that people should have the option of watching a Scottish bulletin or any other regional bulletin wherever they live.”