Thank you Phill you have just made my point even clearer.
Sky news is essentially a service for the UNITED KINGDOM not just England like you and many more of you think including the people that control our major broadcasters.
You and people like you are the very reason I started this thread - there is more to the UK than England - you should remember that!
Barney, please dont start turning this into an English/Scottish issue.
The *point* of your initial question was answered adequately earlier in the thread. There isn't enough news in Scotland worthy of a dedicated channel. Reporting Scotland and the shared resources of Scotland Today/North Tonight provide a very good service, but even they sometimes fill the airtime up with cat-in-a-tree stuff.
As a Scot, one could also pick up on the fact that Scotland was referred to as a "Principality" when, as a Kingdom, it clearly is not, but all this sabre-rattling doesn't get us anywhere. Referring to Phil as "You and people like you" is frankly no better than what you accuse him of. The issue is not about attitude, it is about the reality of filling expensive airtime.
One more thing - why do you quote peoples posts and then write your comments in a fresh one?
England has a population 10 times that of Scotland. Scotland may be big but most of it is uninhabited.
Inform me what major day to day story could happen in Scotland
1 - outside Edingburgh/Glasgow and
2 - would be worthy of mentioning on a major UK news channel specialising in BREAKING news.
Would you concede, Barney, that the general view expressed here (ie that Scotland would not merit its own news channel) is correct ? It seems that you are suggesting that Sky should cover the entire United Kingdom and devote a certain percentage of its output to Scotland *regardless* of whether or not anything newsworthy was happening in Scotland ?!
Sky has 2 million viewers in Ireland via Sky Digital and Cable. If it has 7 million DTH subscribers in the UK as a whole, (and assuming penetration of Sky Digital in Scotland and England is comparative) then based on population distribution Sky probably has about 500,00 Scottish viewers....not really enough to merit a dedicated service from Sky News is it ?! (bearing in mind that even if Sky News got a 10% audience share of the theoretical maximum this would only amount to 50,000 people watching !)
We live in the UNITED Kingdom of which Scotland is part. Sky broadcasts a service for the UK. Scotland is a region of the UK - why should Sky have to produce a separate service for them. What next, Sky News Wrexham about Wrexham footballers who have tripped and fallen and will miss the next crucial match against Port Vale?
The vast majority of the UK live in England, and so the affairs of their football team would be of interest to them. I must admit the story would probably not have received as much attention had there been anything else going on, but there wasn't. Oh, sorry, there was the Conservative Party Conference. Bring on Beckham any day - far more interesting, even in Scotland!!!!
Ireland is a separate country and Sky is within its rights to produce a separate service for Ireland.
Whilst I'm all in favour of celebrating the cultural differences of the contituent parts of the UK, politicallty we are the same nation (Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections proving that the Scots and Welsh are not interested in devolution any more!).
Until Scotland gets independance (and I can't see it in my lifetime) things like Sky Scotland and Scottish Six should remain pipe-dreams.
What next, Sky News Wrexham about Wrexham footballers who have tripped and fallen and will miss the next crucial match against Port Vale?
For heavens sake Moz at least argue the point sensibly. Scotland may not be brimming with enough news stories to keep a channel going but I think we are *Slightly* more significant than your metaphor. We are not a town, a district or a region. We are a Nation. I'm not going to argue that we need a dedicated channel but to compare Scotland to Wrexham is verging on the insulting.
Moz posted:
Whilst I'm all in favour of celebrating the cultural differences of the contituent parts of the UK, politicallty we are the same nation
Except for the bits that make us entirely different, of course. But I'm sure you meant to say that.
Moz posted:
(Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections proving that the Scots and Welsh are not interested in devolution any more!).
Says who? On what grounds do you base your assertion?
Anyway.... I still think its unlikely that Scotland will see anyone provide a news channel dedicated to Scotland without there being a culture shift towards US style local news.
Well I agree the wrexham thing was over the top; but his essential point I agree with. I'm from the north west of england, and it's population is comparable in size to that of scotland (According to the census site NWeng has 6.7million and Scotland 5million for those interested)
Now in the NW there is certainly not enough news to sustain a 24hr news channel; nor is most of the news that comes out of the region of the importance that is should be put alongside National and International news in a 4hr slot everyday. I now live in scotland (at uni), and have to say apart from the Assembly, it's just the same. So I agree with those that say it's unsustainable in that way.
However there may be an arguement for Sky (and BBC etc) maybe having a slot (eg 8:30pm) where they report the national and international news from a scottish perspective. I think that could work. But then again, Sky is a commercial broadcaster, and it's only ever do such a thing if it were in it's commercial interests. At the moment thats a no. The BBC however, should really be introducing the Regions to News24 as soon as possible imo. Who knows, it may actually help them catch up with Sky in terms of viewers.
Well I agree the wrexham thing was over the top; but his essential point I agree with. I'm from the north west of england, and it's population is comparable in size to that of scotland (According to the census site NWeng has 6.7million and Scotland 5million for those interested)
Now in the NW there is certainly not enough news to sustain a 24hr news channel; nor is most of the news that comes out of the region of the importance that is should be put alongside National and International news in a 4hr slot everyday. I now live in scotland (at uni), and have to say apart from the Assembly, it's just the same. So I agree with those that say it's unsustainable in that way.
However there may be an arguement for Sky (and BBC etc) maybe having a slot (eg 8:30pm) where they report the national and international news from a scottish perspective. I think that could work. But then again, Sky is a commercial broadcaster, and it's only ever do such a thing if it were in it's commercial interests. At the moment thats a no. The BBC however, should really be introducing the Regions to News24 as soon as possible imo. Who knows, it may actually help them catch up with Sky in terms of viewers.
At last some sense -
The real problem here is the vast majority of English people would see Scotland as a region of the UK but they also think that the UK consists of only England thus making Scotland a region of England. I think you will find we are a country and nation and the BBC excepts that. BBC Radio Scotland is a national radio station not a regional one!
I think the idea of News 24 opt out is a great idea I am sure this could work!!
I am not in any way anti English (my Grandad was from London) and there is no way that I would welcome Independence but we have differences and that should be respected.
You seem very good at making sweeping statements about the way people think without backing them up with any evidence. If people who reside in England thought that Scotland was a region of England there wouldnt be any need for any news channels, as nobody would have the intelligence to watch them.
English people are not a bunch of moronic dolts which seems to be implied by your assumption that we all think that Scotland is Northern England.
Do the Scottish think that England is Southern Scotland? When England play Scotland do we think its a North vs South game?
So in conclusion.............its not "time for Sky News Scotland" at all then is it ?!
Perhaps its "time for Public Broadcaster BBC to run regional opt-out on News 24 at the risk of simply repeating local content already delivered by BBC Local News" ?
Noticed this interesting article in this week's Sunday Herald:
Quote:
BBC Scotland has secretly recorded three pilot “Scottish Six” 6pm television news programmes and will decide before the end of the year whether to go live with the new hour-long programme, it emerged yesterday.
Executives at BBC Scotland have long cherished the idea of editing an integrated Six O’Clock news programme to include Scottish, UK and international news from a Scottish perspective. The test programmes, presented by the Reporting Scotland team of David Robertson, Jackie Bird and Sally Magnusson, will only be seen by BBC staff and small focus groups to test how they respond to the changed news agenda.
BBC Scotland secured support from London colleagues in sharing UK and international newsgathering resources for the project and the pilots were recorded between September 23 and 25. Due to the sensitivity of the project the tapes were not described as “pilots” – which would suggest they were intended for follow-up – but only as “demon stration tapes”.
“These are to assist focus groups with the concept,” said a senior BBC source. “We are not calling them pilots, as that would imply the real thing would follow, and we have an open mind on that.”
The integrated, hour-long Scottish Six would replace the current half hour of UK and international news presented from London followed by the half hour of Reporting Scotland. This would avoid major stories affecting Scottish viewers appearing after the least important UK and inter national news, and also avoid the presentation of UK stories on government policies which [did not relate to Scotland]
I can see this coming sooner rather than later. There is certainly enough material to fill an hour each night from a Scottish perspective. It is quite annoying when many of the stories on the BBC Six relating to government issues relate only to England and Wales, but that's devolution for you. Don't agree on the Sky News Scotland line of thought at all though. Sky News does a good job at representing the nations.
