BBC to trial Scottish Six

I'd be quite happy for the regions to do the whole BBC1 news provision, and leave the nationals on the BBC News Channel.

They tried that before. It was called Sixty Minutes

LOL!

What I was thinking was a cityprod said e.g. Harry Gration and Shirley Henry from Leeds bringing world, national and local news bringing in pre prepare packages say Norman Smith talking to Theresa May and connecting to Salford for Sportsday.

That way BBC News takes on a more in-depth approach with specialist programmes at 6PM.

Yes, because if there's one thing that saves money it is producing 18 versions of the same programme. The people who are going 'well America and Australia mix local and regional news so why can't we' are missing out the key difference - Australia and America are Federal nations. That means where ever people are in the country many of the key policy issues are devolved and thus discussing the policies centrally will be irrelevant to most of the country. Politics in England is essentially unitary and thus nearly all policies of importance are decided centrally and are thus applicable to the whole of England thus the stories are better covered centrally.

Wales, Northern Ireland and London have some areas of policy devolved but many are still centrally organised. Scotland, on the other hand, has nearly all areas of policy devolved and thus it makes sense to have a separate programme for Scotland. When it boils down to it most domestic news stories are political and thus given that most of Scotland's politics happens in Scotland as opposed to Westminster it makes sense for Scottish viewers not have to watch endless stories about policies that won't effect them. I'm sure that if the Scottish Six is a success then it will be given to the other two nations but to give it to the English regions would be pointless as it would be 15 regions covering the same story only in varying regional accents.

The Scottish Six is not the end of the world as some on here seem to believe - it's simply readjusting BBC News to cope with devolution. It isn't a logistical nightmare as you'll have people stood in Holyrood rather than Westminster, stories that are relevant and that concern the British government can be done by VT, most international news stories are pre packaged anyway so can be played out anywhere and have the News Channel and World News not been using the same reporters for years? Nor will this be some kind of SNP propaganda network run by Sturgeon herself, in fact it'll almost definitely be like an extended Reporting Scotland that also plays out stories about the rest of the UK and the rest of the world. I'm sure that the editors of such a programme will have sufficient judgment as to know what stories to prioritise and it won't be Scotland, Scotland, Scotland but a running order that best suits the audience which the current Six doesn't.

One good example of this working is Portugal. In the mainland, power is largely centralised to Lisbon. However, there is a lot of devolution in the Azores and Madeira, so those islands have their own early evening news. My Portuguese friends would laugh at how much us Brits are debating such a trivial issue.

Better than talking about brexit though.

Which was sort of my point. Why are we debating whether Scotland should have a Scottish 'Six' when the BBC already has a 24-hour-a-day news channel? Surely the answer is, as I've already suggested, is that all regions and nations have a full hour of localised news at 6pm, because if anyone should want to watch a national bulletin, it would be there on the News Channel that, strangely enough, EVERYONE has access to.

The whole Scottish 'Six' idea seems totally pointless when you add in the availability of the News Channel. It is only pandering to political debate. Just use the already available slot for localised if not local news.

Well if the argument is there for a Scottish Six then surely its there for a Scottish News Channel too.

I disagree. It comes down to cost and currently the BBC has difficulty funding a UK-wide news channel.

RTE can't sustain a 24-hour news channel in a fully independent country, so there's no way the BBC could sustain a separate service for Scotland.

If it's going to happen it makes sense for the 6pm bulletin to be the one, as it has more domestic news and more of those dreaded "in England and Wales" stories. The 10pm bulletin has more international news and is as a result more relevant.

I will fully understand why it might not happen, because the likes of Wales and Northern Ireland could easily complain about the lack of a similar service there. It seems incredible to me for people in Scotland to argue against it though.

Having watched the BBC News at Six tonight, it really is somewhat less than ideal for a Scottish audience.

A lead story on rail strikes which predominantly leads off on Southern Rail and gives some side mention to Scotrail as an afterthought. Another story further down the line on mental health which clumsily throws in the situation in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales as an afterthought. And a succession of very important stories in Reporting Scotland which, on a Scottish Six, would have taken a higher billing.

Tonight was an extreme example - we are in slight silly season and poltiics is off - but it would hard to argue against a Scottish Six being able to deal with sort of problem, if it's on offer.

With the usual caveats on offer here that: a) this is all part of the deal of being part of the UK. There are many benefits to being part of the UK, but it has to be taken in the understanding that compromises have to be made (eg you don't get your own broadcaster) and b) Scotland is getting special case status. But given the option, I'd grab it with both hands.

But this doesn't have to be the case. In Germany, most Laender (state) get their own public broadcasters. (In some cases, two or three Leander share a broadcaster.)

The broadcasters are united under the ARD umbrella and produce a joint general-interest TV service (Das Erste), several specialized services (such as KiKa for kids), as well as regional channels for each broadcaster's service area. And German radio is mostly regional to begin with.

In Spain, the autonomous regional also have their own regional public broadcasters (TV3 in Catalonia, ETB in the Basque Lands, etc.), while TVE takes care of national public broadcasting.

Granted, these setups tend to be expensive, but if Scotland wanted its own broadcasting service while remaining in the UK, there's plenty of precedent for that.