Broadcasting Scotland
And he didn鈥檛 even mention Braveheart.
Or, more accurately, Alex Salmond drew our attention to the fact that he hadn鈥檛 included Braveheart in his tally of movie cultural icons linked with Scotland. (For the cognoscenti, he listed: Local Hero, Last King of Scotland, Rob Roy, Red Road, Whisky Galore, Hallam Foe. What? No Gregory鈥檚 Girl?)
The point of all this? Alex Salmond was arguing that , properly run, could enhance the cultural - and cash - contribution already made by other creative industries.
Most notably, he argued that the Edinburgh festivals brought in millions (in cash and people). The telly and the wireless, he said, could be doing the same for Scotland, day in and day out.
Now, in response, 91热爆 Scotland points out that it has just invested 拢188m in a new state-of-the-art headquarters in Glasgow - with facilities to produce programmes that are the envy of others.
But does the first minister have a point? Re: wider investment, many feel that he does. They point to an apparent falling-off in network investment in Scotland: that鈥檚 for programmes shown across the whole of the UK.
Certainly, that鈥檚 the 鈥減ressing鈥 issue as far as Blair Jenkins is concerned. He鈥檚 the former 91热爆 and STV boss who鈥檚 been asked to chair the first minister鈥檚 new commission into broadcasting.
Others, like Ted Brocklebank of the Tories, also argue that Scotland has a valid case for additional network investment. Mr Brocklebank is a former senior TV executive.
Again, in response, 91热爆 Scotland says there was a slippage after Monarch of the Glen came off the air 鈥 but that investment is already back on the up again and set to improve further.
To be frank, it would be a brave Scots politician who argued against funding for Scotland. There, though, the political consensus vanishes.
Rival parties, mostly, won鈥檛 wear Mr Salmond鈥檚 other demands: for a Scottish Six and for the devolution of control over broadcasting to Holyrood.
A Scottish Six would be a TV news programme, made in Scotland, which covered global, UK and Scottish news. Contrary to some comments, it would not focus exclusively on Scottish news.
However, there are those who argue - with some justification - that the issue has moved on since it was first voiced.
These days, more and more people access news online. They sample the stories they fancy, instead of relying upon a running order of events chosen by someone else.
Viewed that way, the Scottish Six is an analogue debate in a digital age.
However, it鈥檚 important to follow what the first minister said. He did not lay heavy stress on the Scottish Six. Indeed, he described it as 鈥渟horthand鈥 for a wider debate.
Further, he gave very little detail about what the devolution of broadcasting control might mean.
UK Ministers say such a move would be 鈥減arochial and backward-looking鈥. Mr Salmond, you will be astonished to learn, disagrees.
Alex Salmond鈥檚 most vigorous argument concerned investment. Culture, cash, communication and confidence. He said it was 鈥渁bsurd鈥 to suggest that there wasn鈥檛 the talent in Scotland to absorb network commissions. Talent, he said, followed the money.
So, there are two verdicts possible upon Mr Salmond鈥檚 initiative.
Firstly, that he has erred by linking the case for investment with wider, partisan arguments.
Alternatively, that he is attacking on all fronts in order to secure advance in at least one, cash.
You鈥檙e the viewer/listener/web consumer. You judge.
I'm 
Comments
Of course there should be a Scottish Six.
And one of the first items on the new news programme should detail just how many Labour ministers have attended sophistry classes.
On the other hand arguing that somehow Scotland would be denied access to the rest of the 91热爆 because of a beefed-up news operation in Glasgow is best not described as sophistry but rather tosh, complete tosh.
I am a regular viewer of both Question Time and This Week - over the past few months the important and far reaching political changes happening
in Scotland have been resolutely ignored by both these programmes.
Surely the 91热爆 should be even handed enough to inform England and Wales of happenings in Scotland - as there is certainly plenty of coverage of even the minor details of British politics in England. I applaud Alex Salmond and his Government for bringing the inadequacies of Scottish Television to the fore and hope that we will soon see a marked improvement.
Brian is wrong to say that 'the scottish six' is 'an analogue debate in a digital age'.
The point is that news broadcasting responsibility should devolved.
This is way beyond a 91热爆 issue: The fact is, constitutionally, all news covering more than local content MUST be broadcast and based in London. This requirement affects ALL channels not just the 91热爆.
Scotland needs devolved broadcasting rights so that it can cover international news from its own perspective.
Some fools complain about the 'parochial nature' of 91热爆 Scotland or STV's Scotland today, but they fail to realise that it is only 'parochial' because local issues are all they are allowed to report on!!!
Give them something decent to report on and you will soon notice the difference... this will give you greater scope also Brian!
Devolved news broadcasters can still buy into larger newsfeeds as required, such as 91热爆, ABC etc just as many other countries do, and with digital broadcasting if you are determined to watch London based news, then you can.
I remember on the day that the SNP won its historic election in Scotland, Channel 4 news, london based of course, reported on a couple of local stabbings and even David Cameron's latest speech before getting around to the Scottish election.
Another shocking example was when Prince Will broke up with his GF, this was given priority coverage over 80 Iraqi deaths in what was one of the single biggest attacks in Iraq, which happened on the same day.
This situation cannot be allowed to continue.
The question is, will the other parties be constructive or will they just oppose all serious debate on this issue as part of their wrecking strategy?
People would do well to check out the Lib Dem's own manifesto which ALSO supports full devolution of broadcasting! Will they choose to have selective memory syndrome here I wonder?
I can't see what all the fuss is about here - Wales have had their own news for years, albeit after the main Six O'Clock News bulletin. The Welsh news also covers national and international news, and I'm surprised that this wasn't already the case in Scotland, given that you have a slightly different version of Newsnight ?
There is nothing more obvious than the London-centric operations of the 91热爆, both with their television and website operations; John Reith must be spinning, but not as much as the London based 91热爆 managers.
I'm not an SNP voter and probably won't vote for independence if there was a referendum, but Mr Salmond is right. Scotland is poorly served (witness tonight's 6o'clock report on F&M, or the exam result coverage) but so is other parts of the UK, except London. We need a Scottish Six (Good Morning Scotland shows it can be done); and why not also a Welsh Six, or a NE Six? We now live in, effectively, a federal UK and our news should reflect this.
Why does Labour/the UK Government fail to recognise this - after all, they created the devolved/federal arrangement. It's time they remembered this is a process, not an event (per Dewar, D). The comment that any change is parochial and backward looking sounds just like Michael Forsyth arguing against devolution. Ironic, isn't it that Ted Broklebank, a Tory, is making a constructive comment? Why is Labour unable to see their own short-sightedness? Perhaps a new leader will help them!
Saints preserve us from Channel Eck. Isn't he on the box often enough as it is without wanting to take control of broadcasting?
And what does he mean by talent? River City five nights a week? Or a 13 episode run of Still Game? There's a world of difference - and talent - between the two.
Is it going to kailyard TV writ large or is there the will within 91热爆 Scotland to emulate their Welsh counterparts who successfully revived 'Doctor Who' and turned it into an international success?
And what about STV? No mention of them. They are as much remiss as the 91热爆 - if not more - in their failure to produce homemade programmes. And their idea of a network success is the occasional 'Taggart' 25 years on and not a patch on the early episodes.
Ultimately I resent ANY politicians sticking their noses into broadcasting and a Salmond-led government would be worse than most. Give him control of broadcasting and it won't be long before editorial policy and content follow.
Unless things have changed recently we have a 30 minute or so "Scottish" slot after the main 6 p.m. news on 91热爆1 with a similar allocation before the 6.30 p.m. STV news. There are many other "opt outs" on 91热爆1, 91热爆2 and STV in Scotland. I also understand that a dedicated Scottish channel is to be launched on the digital services in the near future.
Perhaps Alex Salmond is planning a Caledonian "Ministry of Truth" to ensure that only the SNP line is heard in future. In practice this will not work in the digital era since there are too many other sources of information available.
Could we not give attention instead to the REAL problems here in Scotland?
I think Alex Salmond does have the right idea; hopefully there will be something that comes out of the commission on broadcasting. Broadcasting in Scotland does need
to change and to grow. It also needs to loose its own parochial Glasgow centric work practice. Yes that does mean a broader coverage of news and events that encompass all of Scotland, this is something that both the 91热爆 and STV both need to heed.
I also think there need to be some thought in how news and current affairs is presented, which means losing the 91热爆 Handy Handbook on presentation, some fresh approaches are needed (this also applies to STV).
91热爆 Scotland now has a state of the art Headquarters in Pacific Quay, so there is now no excuses. It shouldn鈥檛 stop at a Scottish Six. I hope that there is every effort by those that are in the driving seat to draw in as much talent from outside as well as using the talent within (yes even a regular spot from you wouldn鈥檛 go amiss!). There has to be better development and encouragement for young as well as established writers within Scotland to provide good material for future drama, which can develop and draw in much needed commissions.
The thought of politicians sticking their nose in broadcasting fills me with despair. The last thing wanted is a costly duplication of the main news gathering sevice. We already have reasonable coverage of "local news" following the main news broadcast. Prhaps if Mr. Salmond gave up his Westminster seat he would have more tinme to devaote to the important issues rather than this parochial SNP agenda.
Obviously training is working well in Scotland - you can listen to Radio 4 for interview after presenter after interview after package without ever hearing anything other than a Scottish accent. Whether or not 91热爆 Scotland is producing programmes of quality (and it does seem to be in a bit of a trough at the moment), it's certainly pumping out plenty of staff.
Bedd - As Brian knows too well, we have our own education, legal and health service here and we are getting very tired of the 'National' news at 6 being dominated by A Levels and GCSEs,National Curriculum, Grammar Schools, small local court issues, and what Health Trust is doing what, when they have no relevance here at all! Not every day I grant you but, most days what are essentially 'English' only items are dominating in what is supposed to be UK news.
But what really sticks in my craw, is when a Scottish item does make the National News, reporters are despatched from 'down south' to report on this for the rest of the Nation, as if there are no worth while reporters here to cover! Brian and your colleagues, please take a bow. You folk are only too capable of putting Scottish news not only to Scotland but to the rest of UK and the world.
Mmmm, not entirely sure that 91热爆 Scotland are currently resourced to provide comprehensive, in-depth news and current affairs coverage. Agree some talent certainly there. The Beeb were invisible during the day on May 4th; no-one could have predicted the vote chaos that led to such a late final result, but 91热爆 Scotland TV had very little on during that day. It was left to 91热爆 online to break results. Can anyone seriously imagine London ignoring a Westminster election that's neck and neck the next day? That, however, is not so woeful as SMG opting out of a results programme at all in May. Time for this debate, and let's hope it does not get entirely bogged down in the symbolic, but not wholly substantive, issue of a Scottish 6. Good on the FM for raising this - I only wonder about the timing. Might it not have had more effect (amongst those in London who control the purse strings) had the speech been made at the Television Festival?
91热爆 news works to a simple formula. News related solely to England is broadcast UK wide and everything else is left to the regions - Scotland being a region, of course.
Oh, and now and again, they may throw in a Scottish story about something that happened in a place, near Glasgow. Everywhere in Scotland is near Glasgow.
Why is Alex Salmond being attacked here for "sticking his nose into the 91热爆"?
Can we just remember that the 91热爆 is funded by the taxpayer/licence fee payer who has no choice but to pay even if he or she doesn't watch a single 91热爆 programme (or indeed doesn't even have a TV - but has a VCR or DVD player)
As MPs and MSPs are the elected representatives of the taxpayers and licence fee payers it is entirely appropriate that they are able to comment on how and where the money is spent. This is entirely legitimate. There is no suggestion of the Scottish Executive seeking to influence the editorial policy of the 91热爆 or ITV - this is simply a red herring put about by mischievious opponents.
Additionally, it does seem strange that Scotland currently receives only 3% of the programming budget when we must contribute around 10%
of the income.
Scottish issues are routinely ignored by 91热爆 News - cast your minds back to the recent Scottish election where there was NO LIVE TV COVERAGE at all on the second and decisive day of counting - either by 91热爆 or ITV.
You can be sure however that even if Scotland sank into the sea tomorrow, space in the "National" News bulletin would still be made to accommodate the obligatory 5 minutes of complete and utter irrelevance about the daily exploits of the England cricket team.
Go Alex!
Oh please save us from all this tartanising bilge. A Scottish six - and how parochial would that be? I am sorry but if the standard of our local coverage after the six news is anything to go by I would simply be switching to 91热爆24 ( which I do when scotland today comes on).
Frankly I dont give a monkeys about what accent my news is delivered in or where it is made and I dont feel the need to have my news filled with what the MSP for Banf and all the little jocks in the SNP are up to. More nationalist stuff and nonsense.
Thankfully in this modern age if we do end with with this tartanised approach to broadcasting there will be plenty of other channels and the 91热爆 website to turn to.
In any half hour news programme on 91热爆1 how much is relevant to people in Scotland - education, health, environment and transport issues etc are devolved and how many people in Scotland are interested in house sellers' packs in England? The coverage of exam results yesterday showed this - SATs the main item, S levels a footnote. Perhaps the 91热爆 can produce data to show how much of each "national" news programme is of England only, England/Wales only, Scotland only, UK, world or human interest? This is the West Lothian question in reverse. The national newspapers show that it is possible to view news from a Scottish perspective, without being parochial. And interviews with a few people on the streets of West London are neither news nor a reflection of public opinion in London, yet alone Stirling or Shetland, just a cheap way of filing a slot.
Free the Scottish Six eh!
Is the point of this debate not more 'economic' than 'content'?
Scotland is still haemoraging intellect and talent (and therefore money) to the rest of the world and until we can staunch this we will always be regarded as the whinging neighbours to our southern cousins.
The 91热爆 has provided a brand new and exciting platform for our Media, Communication and Arts professionals in the form of their new H/Q. Surely we should be using this as a springboard to supply world class content with world class media and arts professionals.
Doing this will help us in trying to drive our economy upto 2nd class.
Andy M
Perthshire
Never mind a Scottish six, Scotland should have control over a morning news program as well as more control over productions not just for Scottish audiences but globally. For David Cairns to say that a Scottish controlled media would be parochial is a nonsense. A Scottish six could cover national, UK, Europe and global news. At the moment 91热爆 do not allow 91热爆 Scotland to cover international news unless it has a Scottish input, How parochial is that! The man has an empirical London attitude that we are to stupid to embrace and indulge in world affairs. Is he afraid that a Scottish view point would be in contradiction to The London based media.
From the moment I wake up in the morning I am reminded that Scotland has no voice in the UK except for a two minute bulletin every half hour or so. Even the Scottish programs that do exist are mainly shown at unsociable hours so as not to clash with the main network programming. Radio Scotland is the only outlet for Scottish news. A recent example of poor London programming was the fact that my sister over in America called us as she was concerned about the Glasgow airport bombings. We did not know, while the rest of the world was breaking news 91热爆 did not want to interrupt a replay from Wimbledon.
It is a terrible situation when some one phones you from the other side of the world to inform you of a terrorist attack on your doorstep. Scotland needs to be in control of it鈥檚 own broadcasting, as well of the benefits of extra jobs involved within media it focuses a countries hopes, needs and aspirations nationally and globally.
In my humble opinion, Brian Taylor is a far superior political journalist to posh Nick. Yet, around the time of the election and its aftermath, we had posh Nick reporting, rather weakly, on Scottish politics. Now, would anyone ever think of sending Brian to the home counties to cover political events there? No? Why not? What do you mean its a daft idea?...of course it is!
Yes, of course we need a Scottish Six, though I wonder where Poster #2 was 4 years ago during the worst covered election (by the london-centric media) I have ever seen. Radio 5 and the main News ignored the election completely. In April they weren't better by much.
As for "content", to many people think that if it is scottish then it will be good. No. Our current output is embarrassing. I cringe at how bad River City is. Still Game is good, but its just not a great programme. We really should be doing better.
"A Scottish Six would be a TV news programme, made in Scotland, which covered global, UK and Scottish news. Contrary to some comments, it would not focus exclusively on Scottish news."
Whats the difference between this and whats broadcast at the moment? That is exactly what happens under the banner of the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation News. Global followed by UK followed by Regional/Scottish/Welsh etc.
And, why, when there is very little concern in the English regions over excessively london-centric broadcasts is it apparently so apparent in scotland? I say this as a mancunian living in st andrews.
This parochial nonsense has made someone who's family are scottish, brought up as a scot supporting raith rovers to feel embarrassed of a scottish heritage which i used to proudly display.
ps Good luck to your broadcasting, your free higher-education and your voting procedures without the Barnett formula.
I think it's a little unacceptable that Salmond is trying to use his position to achieve this now. I should note that I do understand the issues being raised with regards London centric reporting, particularly on Health Trusts and GCSE's/A Levels however I think it's misguided to believe that this move is anything other than oportunistic on the part of the SNP government.
Whilst it may be correct that he has not yet demanded editorial control the disturbing reality of the fact that he is looking for our main national news programme to be produced in Scotland, thus reducing the access that the disadvantaged (who are less likely to use the internet or watch digital tv) have to national UK wide news, is little different. Salmond knows fine well that if he can focus production of our media in Scotland and thus limit national news access that he will be able to limit the ties between many Scots and the rest of the UK.
For a party which does not have a majority mandate their policy of forcing seperation through the back door by seperating decisions is unacceptable enough but to use the media as a tool for political gain is a massively bigger and worse step in the wrong direction towards eroding our democracy.
We needed a Scottish Six about a decade ago. What is the point these days? Like Brian says, more and more people get a daily news fix online and through other mediums.
Besides, all TV broadcasters should aim towards the largest audience and given that Scotland is a lot smaller than England, is it any big suprise that any news coverage is skewed towards England?
I can see there being an argument if a Scottish Six happens, that 'the news is too 'Glasgow' based, what about the Highlands...we want a Highlands Six'
The needle seems to be stuck on David Cairn's record player. He is forever trotting out the 'Scotland is adequately covered within the union' nonsense which lost Scottish Labour the election this year. The man obviously can't take in the facts and it is embarrassing and even worse increasingly irritating for him to think that he represents 'what is best for Scotland.'
I think the economic part of the speech was the most important. Allowing Scotland to make use of its fine educational institutions to produce top notch television and keep talent in Scotland is a top priority. Yes, obviously it would also end up promoting a stronger Scottish identity but I'm sure that no person could argue that's a bad thing - regardless of their politcs.
And I have to say... Your horns were very becoming at your live broadcast from Edinburgh, Brian!
a news bulletin from Scotland not about Scotland has got to be worth a try. The present "national " output from the 91热爆 can at best be described as mixed. Not all programmes are guilty of being London focussed, but 91热爆 1s main six o clock news can at times be more local than national or international, and on radio 5 Live can be even more insular than TV ever is. Frequent references to London local stories as if they are national news become so common we begin to just ignore them.Most of us have little or no interest in "the Mayor", "the tube", congestion charging in London, Wembley, or even Olympic minutia.
If I was Mr Salmond, I'd be more concerned about the "Glasgow-isation" of Scottish media, with STV now owning everything, and the east coast no longer in possession of a decent television industry.
The swallowing up of Grampian Television was the final straw in what has always been a Glesgae-biased TV service (which, as a north-easter, has NO relevance to my city, or my life!).
Sod England... let's get the WHOLE of Scotland properly represented... not just you-know-where....
I think Mr Salmond should get on with more important issues affecting Scotland like our increasing knife crime.
He isn't getting paid to constantly argue, like a silly wee boy, with Westminster, but to do the job he was employed to do - make Scotland a safer and healthier place.
I fail to see how the idea of a Scottish Six is parochial.Surely if the "Six" covers UK , European and International news stories it is anything but parochial. Could it be that the Unionist parties are just scared stiff of the idea of Scotland getting out from under Londons control.
Why is it that the Radio 4 programme PM takes reports from an Oxford correspondent, a Cardiff correspondent, a Surrey correspondent, but the best they can do north of the Border is a Scotland correspondent? Attitudes like that underpin the growing dissatisfaction with the way the 91热爆 covers news reporting
We have Scottish versions of UK newspapers, including our own newspapers like The Herald and The Scotsman, already providing a mix of national and international view of news from a Scottish perspective.
Why the big fuss if broadcasting follows suit?
I'm amazed this has never been done before now, and why the suggestion provokes an such an outcry.
Scots have always had an internationalist view of the world, compared to the anti-European, island mentality of some of our southern neighbours.
The Irish manage to be proud of their history and tradition without being accused of being parochial.
It is a shame that so few Scots here appear to be interested in events south of the border... after all we all have an MP in London voting on these issues in London (not all are as useless as the one I鈥檓 burdened with in Edinburgh South).
I think there is great value in having 30 minutes of (almost) prime-time TV dedicated to Scottish events. So-much-so, that I'd hate to see it diluted by international news (esp the Paris Hilton type stuff).
If changes are to be made to the current provision, my hit list would be:
(1) Ditch the endless Celtic/Rangers speculation.
(2) Include more news from outside Glasgow
(3) Stop making tenuous "tartan" links to international events.
(4) Only let journalists (not "new readers") conduct interviews.
If you think seriously about why people (and not just Scots) dislike London so much, one of the keys is the media.
One of my earliest experiences is asking my Dad why we couldn't go to the events Blue Peter was always advertising in places like Aylesbury, only to be told not to be so silly as they were 400 miles away.
Sadly, that attitude has if anything got worse (Blue Peter excepted, to be fair) with the visual media hardly ever leaving West London and the print media pretty well oblivious to anything outside the M25. Why, for example, did the Great British Menu only feature 3 chefs working outside London? Glasgow has plenty of good restaurants but the food media thinks we only eat deep fried mars bars here.
I think it's high time Scotland along with Northern Ireland, Wales and various bits of England acted much more independently and produced a significant volume of material. It would make for better and more varied viewing.
My objection to the 91热爆 1 six o' clock news is that it has been dumbed down and is little better than the broadcast equivalent of the Daily Mail. It is replete with "human interest" stories and it's international coverage is awful.It hardly merits the term " news broadcast".
If those who object to what they think will be a parochial broadcast edited in Scotland were to be a little more broad minded they would realise that what we have now is a parochial broadcast edited in ( and for )the 91热爆 Counties.
Broadly I think Salmond is on the right track here.
Is it not time we discussed the heart of the matter - the patronising attitude of the westminster 'jocks' and their 'grannies heilin hame' view of Scotland. The westminster centric 'divide and rule' partition of the UK that they subscribe to is 19th century not 21st century politics. Enterprising scots will not remain in Scotland until westminster becomes patron not patroniser.
What a waste of time - it's not up to the 91热爆 or indeed the Government to decide what media/ culture I can 'choose'. Go on line or on digital and you can choose for yourself - watch what you want from where ever you want. If it's made in Scotland - great - if not, then so long as it's what I choose - then what's the problem. Media and culture are not above the market - it's like any other consumer product. Incidentally I pay a poll tax for the 91热爆 - is wee Eck going to scrap that?
#19 - You must have been living on another planet when the Glasgow attack happened. I was watching 91热爆 news 24 and the information about the attack came on there very quickly. Thats the point of having a 24hr news channel.
#22 I think makes a valid point. If we leave aside the "little jock" mentality from the debate for a moment there is no doubt that the 91热爆 and the rest of us would benefit from a less Londoncentric view of the UK. That doesn't mean I want a Scottish six or a separate Scottish broadcasting commission - but it would be good to see wider uk coverage more regularly in the existing six format. What we don't need though is to simply replace the "little england" home counties mentality with a "little jock" mentality that only values things if they are made in Scotland.
Remember also that there is a tension between using broadcastin as a cultural tool - for example to give value to the scottish vernacular - and a desire to boost the economic contribution of scottish media production. Put your money into Scottish dialect and Gaelic language production and its unlikely such productions will sell much outside Scotland.
Why should we have to sit and watch half an hour of "international News" from London which contains such items as English education, English sport and historical stuff that is of no interest to Scots viewers. I stay in the Scottish Borders where the only alternative to 91热爆 Scotland is Border TV. We at least get the Scottish News at 18.30 on 91热爆 but we should have an hour as the alternative is listening to items about Whitehaven, Aspatria, the Isle of Man and other places we have never even been . . or would want to go to. We are treated as second class citizens and Border, now a tiny part of the Granada company, never ever covers the Edinburgh Festival, Hogmanay, Burns Night or St Andrew's Day or relays Gaelic programmes from STV or Grampian. We are scots too and a Scottish Six would help on 91热爆 but please, please get rid of Border TV.
I have just watched the headlines from News24 this morning and virtually all items with the exception of the foot and mouth outbreak, and even that is marginal, were exclusive to England. This includes even sport. Shortly we will have to endure gibberish about GCSE results, where were the reports on the Scottish results? On the magazine section of this site there is, 'Who was England's greatest queen?'. Victoria is included for consideration. She was crowned as Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Where does England come from?
Interesting that almost no-one has drawn attention to the supposed idea that a Scottish Six would also include International news.
Everytime 91热爆 Scotland does radio from Brussels or Strasbourg we get a better insight into policies which do actually chance things - for better or worse - and which Scottish politicians and organisations are involved in.
Might a whole hour at Six venture more often into these areas too?
About time.
You'd be up for that, wouldn't you Brian?
As an interested Scotsman living in Australia you might like to know that here on the ABC (our National government TV network), the nightly 30 minute news is presented as a complete package in each State at 7pm (from that state's local capital city) albeit with a lot of national stuff being sourced out of Sydney. This is followed by a national (out of Sydney) 30 min current affairs program - The 7.30 report.
So, for example if you are in New South Wales you get the national and local news in a locally produced 30 minute bulletin coming out of Sydney. If you live in Queensland, it comes out of Brisbane etc. Same for Victoria, South Australia etc.
The national newsroom is in Sydney. Complete bulletins from there are only seen at lunchtime and for late night news updates after 8.30pm at night.
I have just returned from living in the Republic of Ireland for 6 years. Whilst I appreciate that there are blatant political differences between our country and theirs what I witnessed was a small country (relatively the same size as Scotland) with its own broadcasting powers and national TV channels. With these powers they are able to promote their country as wholly vibrant, outgoing and forward looking, and with numerous local broadcasts packed with common interest programmes it was most certainly far from dull and inward looking.
I think its just what a 21st century Scotland needs to promote itself on the international stage.
Surely it's obvious that the problem Scotlands experiencing is more or less the same for the rest of the UK outside London.
The solution is simple: get rid of the London centric 91热爆 by movinig it out of London.
I cannot believe how much 'selective facts' there on here from frankly biased (probably) SNP voters, i'd just like to put my own point of view on what has been said so far.
Licence payers are not necessarily voters (or taxpayers)
91热爆 news 24 had a comprehensive coverage of the election as well as the online content.
There are already special programs dedicated to Holyrood and Scottish politics at the weekend and during the day - not just 2 minute bulletins
River City is terrible and Still game is going downhill.
It's up to the 91热爆 how it funds operations, we already have increased football coverage (waaaaayyyy better than STV quality) and the new headquarters is a great use of resources.
Salmond -get onto the real issues - i don't remember you being so enthusiastic about broadcasting during the election - is this a diversion?
Brian,
If the Scottish six is an analogue debate in a digital age then the argument stands good for the current Six News from London, (wonder if we will need as many reporters in the new digital age! (or are the now called commentators) ).
The so called national news from London is nothing of the kind 鈥淣ational鈥 unless you are talking 鈥淣ational England鈥.
I am a regular viewer of news on the 91热爆 and can go for days watching the current 鈥淪ix News鈥 without hearing a word about Scotland; strangely they seem able during the same period to go on endlessly about Cricket.
I have also seen items where facts and figures being reported on some English subject are compared with France or Holland and no mention of Scotland, when there was a perfect opportunity to let viewers in England see what happening on the same subject in Scotland, but they habitually fails to do this.
We need Scottish Six news
You can only take this parochialism so far - if Salmond's changes were adopted, how long before we would we hear about how everything is dominated by the central belt?
Everything in the UK is London-centric, for good reason: simple population numbers/density and the economy, driven and dominated by people in London and the south-east. That is the reality. Get used to it!
91热爆 Fanfare: The football season begins this weekend.
Reality: The English football season begins this weekend (the Scottish already underway).
Am I being trivial? If it were a one off then yes, triviality, not to mention paranoia could be laid at my doorstep.
But this simple fanfare is symtomatic of the fact that England is the 91热爆's 'default' position.
They display a total lack of interest in Scottish affairs. Their argument is that Scottish affairs are covered by 91热爆 Scotland. Indeed they are, as are London affairs by 91热爆 London, Manchester by 91热爆 Northwest etc.
I was abroad during the Holyrood elections. I listened for hours about news of the SNP success. We were treated to news about elections and other events in France, Chad, Angola et al.
I could count the number of minutes devoted to the SNP victory on one hand. I got more news from CNN.
It will no longer wash. We need our own broadcasting company and we need it now.
I'm English but have lived in Scotland and now live in Wales. I don't watch the London 91热爆 or ITV news anymore, as your correspondents say, it doesn't have much relevance here, we don't have Charter and Faith based Schools, Foundation Hospitals( at least I hope not) or a lot of the other stuff that applies to some of England and all of the area inside the M25 which doesn't seem to be part of the UK any more. I would suspect a lot of the more "remote" regions of England would opt out of the "national news" as well.
Most of the London based news programmes cover events close to London as its a lot cheaper than sending a news team to Anglesey or Skye. So expect to hear more about the rain in Finchley.
I have come round to the view that a Scottish Six is overdue, in spite of Brian's analogue analogy.
I access news and sport online all the time and even there there is an inbuilt English bias. England has its own dedicated homepage like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the UK homepage is Anglo/London centric. Take sport for example, all the headlines for football are for the Premiership so you have to use the menu on the left for the SPL coverage which is the only place non-Old Firm fans will find any news on their team.
On the network news front the 91热爆 now adds 'in England' to most of its news stories instead of 'nationwide' or 'across the country' as a sop to devolution, but the stories are still predominantly English and of limited interest to Scotland. The smoking ban was a case in point. The rest of the UK got over it without making a song and dance about it but for weeks we had to endure report after report before during and after the ban. Fair enough if you are viewing in England but we can do without it thank you very much.
Before devolution we used to complain, rightly, that broadcasters said 'England' when it was the 'UK'. It would appear that the position is now reversed and 'UK' is being used when it is more accurately 'England', but I suppose if 90% 0f the population of England are unable to differentiate between English and British, including most of the Cabinet, then it is likely to be a case of 'plus c'est change, plus c'est la meme chose' for some time to come, unless............
As usual politicos have been sidetracked by the Scottish Six stuff. Really, what this is about is Salmond trying to help out Scottish producers and rattling the cages of the 91热爆 and ITV to make sure they don't forget that there is an industry in Glasgow and elsewhere in Scotland that makes programmes that can be consumed in Scotland, the UK or overseas.
It's obvious that an independent Scottish Broadcasting Corporation would have to buy in a lot of programmes (probably from America) and that SKY would sell even more dishes, just as in Ireland.
What Salmond is doing is trying to bolster an indigenous industry and showing that the SNP will stick up for it. That's his job as First Minister.
TV remains very important and needs to be democratically accountable. Ofcom is not satisfactory from a Scottish perspective- either as a viewer or for Scottish producers.
It is patronising and insulting for the UK government to suggest that a fully Scottish produced news would be 'parochial'.
The intention by this comment is to either
a) deliberately mislead by suggesting that such a change would lead to journalism that would ignore the rest of the world, or
b) that a separate Scottish view on global events would be an irrelevant 'parochial' one.
UK Ministers just can't help themselves being patronising and condescending wherever the Scottish public is concerned.
I've noticed over several years that the quality of Gaelic reporting on Europe is very high. I often watch it in preference to mainstream programmes. As a former broadcaster, I see no basis for the "parochial" argument against Scottish broadcasting. We are a nation, not a parish, and have more than enough talent to broadcast our take on the news and world events.
Or is that what 91热爆 London & Glasgow are really worried about? - that we might start speaking our minds and influencing people?
As a professional who works with digital maps, one of the most irratable parts of the current news is the slanted perspective of the weather map. Essentially, Scotland looks practically nothing like this view unless your viewpoint is from somewhere near the English Channel.
Where this goes beyond irrating however, is that gradually a generation will assume that Scotland really is a tiny appendage to England, thus confirming the tabloid rantings.
I endorse a weather map that is centered on say Perth and looks south. Imagine the outcry if 91热爆 Scotland were to adopt it!
Brian Taylor is adopting the slightly whimsical/condescending/sarcastic/'I know better tone' common with 91热爆 journalists when confronted with anything the SNP or anyone else suggests in this are. They are probably worried for their jobs if they ever let their true feelings slip.
What he forgets is that he and his ilk are draining 拢300M out of the Scottish economy annually in terms of the hated 91热爆 License Fee. Its a serious argument about the use(misuse) of vast sums of the public's money. We could finance 10,000 productive jobs in Scotland with that kind of money.
He must be astute enough to realise this is not an argument about journalistic theory or purity. Its certainly not about the ethics of journalism or control would have been transferred long ago. Its about cold, hard politics. Broadcasting and the media are the main weapons Westiminster has in keeping political control of Scotland.
#21 - You cringe at River City? Why? It is fun, intersting and has good plot lines. Some of the actors are quite brilliant at their jobs.
My guess is the cringe is the typical Scottish cringe - the reason? You are simply not used to hearing Scottish accents on the telly - except posh wans!
"Besides, all TV broadcasters should aim towards the largest audience and given that Scotland is a lot smaller than England, is it any big suprise that any news coverage is skewed towards England?"
Hnnnnggggghhhhhh. That's an argument for why a public service broadcaster SHOULD be providing a devolved news programme.
I am a Scot living and working outside the UK. One of the links which I have with home is 91热爆 World Service TV. I wrote to them after the Scottish Elections to complain about their complete lack of coverage. Their response, part of which I quote here is indicative of the 91热爆's attitude:
"I am sorry if you are disappointed with the lack of UK news in our bulletins, particularly that the Scottish elections are not being covered. Major news stories from the UK are included as are important state occasions. The British budgets are always carried in depth, as are general elections and other major political stories, as well anything else considered to be of international importance."
Apparently the Scottish Elections were not regarded by the 91热爆 as a major news story from the UK and coverage of state occasions did not run to the state opening of the Scottish Parliament. I had to go online to see that. By the way, they did give a blow by blow account of the French election which followed soon after the Holyrood election.
What's wrong with Reporting Scotland and Good Morning Scotland and Newsdrive from 4pm? It's not a Scottish Six which is the issue. We do have plenty of opportunities for accessing Scottish news on an national and an local scale...have a look at 91热爆 News Scotland online and you will see what I mean. I think that the issue is the commissioning of other documentary and drama programmes here in Scotland. That's sadly lacking at the moment. The last great Scottish 91热爆 drama series after Sunset Song has to be Tutti Frutti. What have we seen after that?
Brian, interesting comments,however diversity and culture must never be controlled by spin and propaganda,the notion that the nation would flourish by the intent of a Scottish broadcasting company is a bit thin,Alex, "WHAT ABOUT" alittle less conversation and a little bit more action.by the way i dont mean camera action i mean legislative action.
In response to your question - Yes, there should be an independant 6 o'clock news programme for Scotland.
The 91热爆 is inherently flawed as a national broadcaster because Scotland is and always has been treated as a province of Middle England rather than a sovereign nation.
The 91热爆 has often neglected Scotland by over-reporting on english issues that have no bearing on Scots or Scotland. The Schoolboy error of refering to individuals as "British" Or "Scots" in both Sport and Entertainment being easy examples to cite.
The 91热爆 is still very much a lapdog of the Westminister government - a unionist tool used to repress the ambitions of Scots who want more than just second best from thier own country.
You're all missing the point, and I suspect you're missing the point because not a one of you actually watched Eck's speach before flapping your typing fingers. The purpose of devolving regulatory control over roadcasting isn't to have a Scottish Six or a Salmond TV (what tosh!), but to encourage culture, the arts, and to improve the economy. "[Regulatory control] is a means to an end, not the end itself".
Why is Trawlermen produced by the 91热爆 in England when it feature an exclusively Scottish cast?
Isn't it just as parochial for the 91热爆 in London to report local matters on the national news?
And news flash to those who think regulatory control will be abused by Salmond, the director general of the 91热爆 is *picked by the government at westminster*. I don't hear any of you fearing this right now.
A Scottish Six? 91热爆 Scotland are unable to do decent job of reporting local news. They should aspire to sorting out the current Reporting Scotland programmes first. I have never seen such a human interest and football based news programme in my life. It's like the Sunday Post televised. If this is the best they can manage for Scottish stories imagine how they will deal with global issues. An embarrasment to an inteligent nation.
Please NO - Scottish Newsnight is bad enough. Thats not a criticsim of the professionalism of the jouralists - more the parliamentry muppets they interview, who make village hall politics look sophisticated.
This is typical of Salmond and his goons - trying to engage the popularity of the masses on some frivilous matter, than reasling that the intelligent people who live in Scotlan and watch the news, see through his spin.
What I would like to know how is this going to be paid for? As it stands not enough people in Scotland pay the fee for the 91热爆 to cover 91热爆 Scotland as it is.
The United States is a federation yet American viewers get their main national and international news from networks based in New York (NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox) and Atlanta (CNN). At least 18 States have populations bigger than Scotland, 24 have larger economies, 39 have larger areas and all 50 have more 'devolved' powers.
is this a case of picking on a simple issue and wrapping a scottish flag round it, but surely there are more vital issues to the people of scotland than a 91热爆 six (sounds like a group of kidnapped victims!!!). What about scottish justice and the speed with which the terrorist suspect was transferred to england for trial rather than in our own scottish court. Standing up for Scotland, i do not think so Mr Salmond.
Its ludicrous that 91热爆 Scotland receives only 3-45 of 91热爆 expenditure.
The Scots pay 拢250 million in 91热爆 Licence Fees each year with 91热爆 Scotland receiving less than 拢90 million.
That is unacceptable to the vast majority of Scots.
Mr Salmond believes that it is unfair for Scots to contribute 10% of the 91热爆's budget yet only receiving 3% of its investment. Presumably this logic dictates the immediate scrapping of The Barnett Formula whereby Scots gain considerably more per head in UK Government spending than their English and Welsh counterparts.
On the so called "national" 6 o'clock news this evening, there was an item about Wayne Rooney's foot injury. For someone who should be an impartial newsreader like George Alagiah to talk about how "our" star striker may be out for several weeks, demonstrates the London based 91热爆 team's absolutely disgraceful attitude to the rest of the UK. Why can he not talk about "England's star striker"? A Scottish Six (and One and Ten too) is long overdue.
We have International, UK and Scottish news on Radio Scotland, why not also on TV?
Lets be honest for once about this issue. There is absolutely no practical or technical reason why 91热爆 TV news can not be edited locally by 91热爆 Scotland so that it is broadcast from a Scottish perspective as is already happening with 91热爆 Scotland Radio News. I suspect that the real reason why it isn't happening is that the Westmister political establishment see the resurgance of Scots cultural independence on issues such as this as leading to the break up of the UK and and are fighting tooth and nail to preserve the status quo.
Economic arguments for and against Scottish independence are debated almost every week in the media, but there is very little debate on the cultural benefits of independence.
At the present time viewers south of the border must see Scotland as a cultural black hole, as very seldom are any Scottish-made programmes seen nationally. More importantly, as UK television channels are seen in many other countries, Scotland gets little or no promotion of its cultural values there either. In fact Scotland loses out in almost every area; drama, comedy, sport, history, scientific achievement. It seems that the only time these channels have something to say about Scotland is to show Scots up in a bad light.
Irksome remarks are made by English TV presenters such as 鈥淓ngland is an island鈥, and 鈥楤lair Castle is in England鈥 and some appear to have been coached to say 鈥淏ritish鈥 instead of 鈥淓nglish鈥. Americans regularly refer to the UK as 鈥淓ngland鈥 (Scotland, it seems, must therefore be 鈥榥owheresville鈥). The English based TV companies including the 91热爆 are biased towards English produced programmes promoting English values and personalities and employing mainly English people and to call these channels British TV is a misnomer. Even Scottish subjects are highjacked by English program makers. Scotland does get a few crumbs (the token Scot) but this is the exception!
You might say that in this respect Scotland is already separated from the UK, therefore, why not go the whole ten yards to full independence, when at least Scotland would have control of its own destiny and be able to promote itself in a more direct and meaningful way.
Go on a tour of any world capital and when you reach the embassy district, the tour guide will explain there is French embassy, Germany embassy, and over there the English embassy.
91热爆 world service highlights English, Spanish, Italian, but no Scottish football results.
Bank of Engalnd....
Murder rate three times higher in Scotland than in Engalnd, only London murders make national (so called) news, why?
91热爆 have a Scottish correspondent and specific English based sports reported to report on Scottish sport. Why. Are our own reporters not good enough?
Point being, we are under reported, misrepresented and invisible, this will not change untill we get control over our own broadcasting. This means we have to be sure that the people running Scottish media are fully committed to Scotland and not prepared to jumped to London when the first job materialises.
This also means divorcing the Scottish media麓s hand in glove relationship with the Labour party. This has been bad for Scotland and Labour Party, e.g. McConnell / Wark debacle.
If the appropriate share of Scottish budget raised in Scotland were to be spent in Scotland, what would we have to loose?
It is impossible to get an indepth report or any credible report on the many issues important to Scotland.
We are not fairly represented in the present news coverage system and the little we have is insult to Scotland.
There should be no debate about the need for better news coverage, there are major debates and decisions being made on our behalf and like any other democracy we should have clear, unbiased indepth news coverage.
Why force the 91热爆 to land a Scottish Six on us?
If the idea was a winner with us Scots then ITV/STV would put it on and cash in on the advertising potential. Let them jump -- the markets are never wrong but our politicians often are.
Why cant we see the pilot program made in 2004 of the 91热爆 Scottish Six???
Or is the 91热爆 running scared that we might actually like it.
Ive heard it was better than expected
As a Scot living in Birmingham now for some 27 years with a large extended family still living in Scotland, I have to say that Reporting Scotland is no better or worse than Midlands Today.(I last watched Reporting Scotland in June) What I would like to see happen is a more balanced edit in the six o'clock news. I only manage to keep in touch with Scottish news online. I'm sure I'm not the only person south of the border who is frustrated by London bias. A Scottish six would simply mean no Scottish news at all for us.