[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.