[GraemeT88]

It was always a decent, non stuffy programme which still covered a lot of decent material, and for me was a nice summary at 9-10 and get to bed at a decent time. You don’t get much decent Scottish sports coverage on bbc, so the sporting updates were good too.

A much more accessible and friendly show than reporting Scotland - even though it shared many presenters!

[Brekkie]

Truly the programme was always doomed to fail at 9pm. The one hour of the day when TV across the schedules is at their strongest means there's no way you can expect even the most loyal audience to tune it at 9 every night like they do at 6 and 10. Arguably it's hurt BBC Scotland as a channel itself. The slot they could have used to their advantage to showcase their variety of genres to an audience flicking through the EPG was constantly lumbered with news.

I'll never understand why they persisted with 9pm and didn't try another slot much sooner.

I wonder if this will be the end of its separate studio and they'll do an ITV London on the Reporting Scotland set? That separate set must be a substantial cost when they've got an unused standing set in the same building.

It being a bad slot also makes it a good slot though - there is a floating audience around at 9pm and it's a fixture there that, in theory if not in practice, potential viewers would be familar with. Also it being a competitive slot means by sticking the news there they're not wasting new programming there.

That said 9pm is nowhere near as strong as it once was - yes, the big shows can get 4-5m+ there but more and more often everything lands below 2m nowadays.


As for the channel as a whole I personally would see it axed and opts return to BBC2. Think that gives them more flexibility and personally I think BBC Wales is stronger for putting flagship content on BBC1 and using BBC2 for live sport etc. than BBC Scotland has been for having the extra chanbel.

[LargelyALurker]

As for the channel as a whole I personally would see it axed and opts return to BBC2. Think that gives them more flexibility and personally I think BBC Wales is stronger for putting flagship content on BBC1 and using BBC2 for live sport etc. than BBC Scotland has been for having the extra chanbel.

Yes, I tend to agree - new/high-quality content would stand out much more as opt-outs on BBC1/2, and there’s iPlayer for catch-up. I don’t think enough people watch the channel for its closure to result in a significant outcry from viewers, especially if the opt-out to BBC2 returns (although it’s obviously be politicised!).

[StreamingTV]

Replace this channel with BBC Two Scotland and BBC Alba, this has being a waste of money from the offset.

[AverageOrangeTurnip]

I'm absolutely gutted to read this. I haven't ever been to Scotland - live in the West Midlands - but the presentation of The Nine makes it much easier to watch. I hope BBC News take the approach to another programme. It had the same "lighter" feel as listening to Newscast.

[James2001]

I doubt it Just give people the Scottish Six and be done with it

But is there any more real world demand for the scottish six than there has been for any of this? Just feels like yet another thing politicians shout about but few other people are bothered about.

[Milkshake]

But is there any more real world demand for the scottish six than there has been for any of this? Just feels like yet another thing politicians shout about but few other people are bothered about.

Its not the politicians that wanted it, it was the public however the resentment between the public and BBC means there little love lost when certain actions happen, like todays news.

[qwerty123]

It's not longer the flagship it once was. Yes Scotland is part of the UK, however when the top story is NHS, Education etc it has No uses to anyone in Scotland.

BBC can't stand up to SNP or anyone in Scotland because of the utter dismissal and disgraceful manner over the 2014 Ref, The amount of distrust between them is growing by the day. Did the Beep really think this new channel would help build bridges? especial when no one wanted it.

The BBC should be providing a news service that is useful to everyone, and not a box ticking Exercise, and if people really want this, then tough it what people should get, BBC is here for the public and not for its self interests.

The thing is those stories are no more relevant in Northern Ireland and in many cases Wales than they are in Scotland but nobody is calling for those areas to get their own six.
There’s a lot that people want the BBC to do and a lot of it in much larger numbers than those wanting a Scottish Six but they simply cannot afford to do everything that people want so should focus on providing as much as they can to the most people rather than providing extra services to some paying the same amount based solely upon their location.

[interestednovice]

I think this combined with the requirement for the channel to still have some news content is the reason why the news will be at 7pm.

In general, with the BBC News at 6 (on BBC One) most live reports appear within the first 15 minutes of the programme. It therefore should be fairly easy if the will desired for BBC One Scotland to have it's own separate hour long news bulletin at 6pm. They could easily lead with a major headline affecting Scotland, before covering other nations/national stories in a different order, so that any live reports didn't clash with the network. Reporting Scotland could then focus on the more local headlines, with perhaps even the option for a couple sub-opt-outs (as per how Cambridge Look East used to be).

Yes, there is a requirement for some news programming so a re-purposing of “The Seven” sounds like the way they are ticking the box. However, it’s clear the BBC no longer expect it to garner any decent ratings at all and there isn’t going to be a realistic effort to make it a unique programme with the level of ambition The Nine originally had. I suspect the content will be largely a repeat of Reporting Scotland, to save money. Given that BBC Scotland only starts at 7pm, it sounds like a “get it out of the way” scenario, so they broadcast other things in prime time.

The trouble with the “Scottish Six” sharing resources is that, in the idea given here, the top story (and in fact the first 15 minutes or so of the programme) has to be “Scotland stories” every single day. There would be no flexibility. In reality, the top story of a programme like The Nine is rarely a Scotland-only story because it’s not often that is the main story of the day. So you would have to artificially front-load regional stories and only get around to major UK-wide and international stories later on. That makes for a worse product for Scottish viewers, but at greater cost. You also compromise resources by requiring a second “pointless live” from correspondents for Scotland only, later in the hour, which would mean extra waiting around and cost for basically no reason.

The loss of BBC Two Scotland also meant the BBC lost flexibility with the ability to “shift” content between BBC One and BBC Two opts. So the channel has never really worked. Possibly a way to save face would be to merge BBC Scotland with BBC Alba, then reintroduce BBC Two Scotland. But I imagine any English-language originating content on BBC Alba would be very controversial.

The demand for a Scottish Six, in my view, just isn’t there and the ratings of the entire BBC Scotland channel prove it. In the context of money being short at the BBC, I just don’t think it’s the best use of funds.

[interestednovice]

It being a bad slot also makes it a good slot though - there is a floating audience around at 9pm and it's a fixture there that, in theory if not in practice, potential viewers would be familar with. Also it being a competitive slot means by sticking the news there they're not wasting new programming there.

As for the channel as a whole I personally would see it axed and opts return to BBC2.

Yes, this is all true!

Sometimes I feel like news at 9pm, having missed the earlier bulletins on various channels, and The Nine did fit the bill and was a good programme. But arguably curtailing the Context and putting out and “overview of the day” programme on the News Channel from 9-10pm would be a better use of money. If they liked, they could even produce it in Glasgow on the Nine set. But that last bit is far-fetched!

I agree on the return of BBC Two opts being better for Scottish viewers on a practical level, and of course unlike some of us most people never even saw The Nine!