20-02-2024, 08:47 PM
I don’t want to stray beyond pres discussion more than necessary. But I will say that I believe the SNP’s official position in the past, certainly in one of their “position papers”, was that they wanted the BBC to voluntarily give up their BBC Scotland assets to assist in the formation of a new “SBC” (working title) which would replace the BBC in Scotland.
The BBC cast doubt over the feasibility of the plan and the idea to launch the BBC Scotland channel was floated not long after. The BBC said it was part of their commitment to Scottish audiences, to bring them more localised content. However, it was widely suspected to be a way of attempting to placate calls for an “SBC”.
Those are just some of the factors that were up for discussion at the time. I’ll leave any political comments there though as I don’t want to get into the rights and wrongs of any particular political argument.
I also want to add that, for many Scottish people, “England only stories” are not irrelevant as all parts of the U.K. are heavily connected and many people will have at least a passing interest in what is happening elsewhere, due to family and friends perhaps living there, so whether those stories are actually still quite relevant is up for debate. Just as the national bulletins reported on the strikes in Northern Ireland, for example, as a major U.K. story.
The Scottish audience do additionally have more than one Scottish-specific radio station and more investment in their news and current affairs than an English region would, with some extra opt-out programmes which English regions don’t get, and BBC Alba, so the local radio argument more than balances out.
The BBC cast doubt over the feasibility of the plan and the idea to launch the BBC Scotland channel was floated not long after. The BBC said it was part of their commitment to Scottish audiences, to bring them more localised content. However, it was widely suspected to be a way of attempting to placate calls for an “SBC”.
Those are just some of the factors that were up for discussion at the time. I’ll leave any political comments there though as I don’t want to get into the rights and wrongs of any particular political argument.
I also want to add that, for many Scottish people, “England only stories” are not irrelevant as all parts of the U.K. are heavily connected and many people will have at least a passing interest in what is happening elsewhere, due to family and friends perhaps living there, so whether those stories are actually still quite relevant is up for debate. Just as the national bulletins reported on the strikes in Northern Ireland, for example, as a major U.K. story.
The Scottish audience do additionally have more than one Scottish-specific radio station and more investment in their news and current affairs than an English region would, with some extra opt-out programmes which English regions don’t get, and BBC Alba, so the local radio argument more than balances out.