BBC to launch Scottish TV channel with hour-long news programme

The BBC is to launch a dedicated Scottish television channel with a new hour-long news programme after a major review of its output and spending in Scotland.

Tony Hall, the BBC’s director-general, told the corporation’s staff in Glasgow on Wednesday morning that spending on new drama and factual programming made in Scotland would increase by £20m.

The new channel will go on air UK-wide in the summer of 2018 with a budget of about £30m – a sum similar to that spent on BBC4, replacing the Scottish programmes currently shown on BBC2.

It will be shown between 7pm and midnight, and include a nightly Scottish-led hour-long news and current affairs programme aired at 9pm. Hall said the channel would lead to 80 new jobs based in Scotland.

BBC Scotland has spent more than a year on developing a “news hour” type programme to replace the Six O’Clock News on BBC1, commissioning a series of pilot shows using different formats, in the belief it would soon see a “Scottish Six” aired every night.

There were reports at the weekend that the Scottish Six proposal had been killed off by Hall and other BBC executives in London, with commentators and the National Union of Journalists furious there would be no substantial new investment in Scottish current affairs programming.

The substantial reforms follow intense debate about the quality and range of BBC programming and spending in Scotland. Only about 55% of the £320m raised from Scottish licence fee payers is spent in Scotland, the lowest proportion among the four nations of the UK. 

The new investment package is subject to final approval from Ofcom and the BBC’s new unitary board, but



Hall said the additional programming and spending was necessary.

In a statement, Hall said: “I said at the beginning of the year that the BBC needed to be more creative and distinctive. The BBC is Britain’s broadcaster but we also need to do more for each nation just as we are doing more for Britain globally.

“We know that viewers in Scotland love BBC television, but we also know that they want us to better reflect their lives and better reflect modern Scotland. It is vital that we get this right. The best way of achieving that is a dedicated channel for Scotland.

Hall told BBC staff in Glasgow it was the largest investment in Scotland for more than 20 years.

“It’s a channel that will be bold, creative and ambitious, with a brand-new Scotland-edited international news programme at its heart. The BBC has the luxury of having first-class creative teams and brilliant journalists, who I know will make this new channel a huge success,” he said.

“The additional investment in Scottish drama and factual programming rightly recognises both the need to do more across our output and the huge pool of talent available in Scotland. We do make great programmes here, such as Shetland, Britain’s Ancient Capital – Secrets of Orkney, Two Doors Down and the brilliant Still Game – but we do need to do more.”

BBC executives have admitted that the corporation has failed to keep pace with devolution across the UK, or reflect the different political systems now operating in different nations and regions.

Hall announced on Tuesday there would be a 50% increase in spending in Wales, up by £8.5m, to improve its English-language programming, and its digital output.