Scottish digital channel 'has window of opportunity'

A "WINDOW of opportunity" exists for the creation of a Scottish digital TV channel, the culture minister said yesterday.

But Fiona Hyslop accepted that any new digital network may have to rely on commercial funding, after initial government hopes it could have operated as a public service broadcaster.

Ms Hyslop said in a statement on broadcasting to parliament that the case for a network has strengthened over the last two years.

The new UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has hit out at the "chronic over-centralisation" of UK broadcasting and set up a panel to explore how local television can be made commercially viable.