MSPs not convinced by BBC Scotland plans

Following an investigation by the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Culture committee, a report into proposed changes at BBC Scotland has been published.

BBC News has a summary of the findings: MSPs 'not convinced' by BBC plans.

The full report makes quite interesting reading, and for those who are most interested, the oral evidence taken is quite enlightening.

A few key points:

- "From the evidence it heard, the Committee is not convinced that BBC Scotland can guarantee that both technical and programme quality can be maintained and indeed increased following any of the changes proposed."

- "The Committee recognises the vital role that the broadcasting sector plays in defining and projecting our culture and national identity. It will be important to ensure that any of the reforms being proposed by BBC Scotland do not prejudice its role in this respect ."

- "In terms of proposals to reform BBC Scotland’s news coverage, the Committee believes that a balance needs to be struck in the future to ensure any ‘localised’ news programme covers both national stories and local stories that are in the national interest. The Committee welcomes proposals to increase BBC Scotland’s ability to cover more ‘local’ stories from across Scotland but does not want to see the model used for regional news in England replacing current practice."

"Because we do not want to see the tedious, Scottish Parliament obsessed Reporting Scotland replaced with a programme which actually reports on important stories which are more relevant to local viewers, but don't feature us."

Has MSP's got something against the BBC? First weather now news, shouldn they be on to the most important things, such as "Robbing" and "BBC License"?!

Huh?

It was actually an MP who raised the issue, one of the Islanders MPs, an SNP one I think

You wouldnt understand the people who work hard day in day out, and over £100 quid of your money has to go to the BBC, even if you dont watch it. As I have said before, the BBC should commerialise, or go Subscription, we shouldnt be forced to pay for TV a lot of us dont need, there are hundreds more channels out there that provide an equal if not better service.

Very little to do with this thread, to be honest, but the BBC is important to retain certain types of programming which would not be supplied by commercial broadcasters. Regional news is being axed all over the place by ITV - this might not be important where you live, but in the nations it's vital. Given time ITV will cut back more and more on their public service broadcasting, including national news, leaving certain types of programmes only available on the BBC. The BBC provides the only all-speech national radio. There are no adverts, and hence no sodding crazy frog, or commercials during kids programmes which influence their behaviour. Programmes like The Office and Little Britain would simply not have come from ITV or Sky - they were not instant ratings successes, and therefore would have been ditched instantly, instead of being given time to become popular (look at ITV's treatment of any programme which has disappointing ratings - ditched instantly).

If you want an all-commercial market forces television service which supplies no intellectual content, why don't you go over to America? The Beeb ain't perfect, there are programmes on it which simply shouldn't be there and are too populist, but it supplies so many programmes and services which wouldn't otherwise be on offer, and is the envy of many countries.

I still don't understand how you can justify this argument. You always complain about Reporting Scotland talking too much about the Scottish Executive and/or Parliament. If your argument had any logic then you should also be complaining about the national BBC News talking too much about "the government" and "Westminster". If you take the political and government stories out of the news then (other than crime) you're left with little else.

Seeing as the Scottish Parliament only sits two/three days a week, I don't think Reporting Scotland is 'obsessed' with providing coverage - as on Mondays and Fridays there is no parliament sitting to report about. I think most viewers would care about decisions being made on their behalf concerning health, education, agriculture fisheries & forestry, economic development, law, (including courts, police and fire services), local government, sport, transport and the environment.

If you'd bothered to read any of the links posted you'll see that Reporting Scotland will be using new technology (already used by BBC Wales) to ensure that a camera is no more than 30mins away from any part of Scotland. However, it's probably easier for you to continue your moaning and groaning about the same old tired points. It's not a wonder other posters don't look at the Scottish threads on the forum.

Anyway, getting back to the point. What do you consider to be the 'more important stories which are more relevant to local viewers'? Please give me a few examples. Cats up trees? Car crashes 'in your area'? Your local newsagent raising the price of cans of Coke?

And how much of my money goes to schools..... which I don't even use?

Just because you disagree scottishtv doesn't mean you need to be condescending. You have a different view, fair enough. What I hate about Reporting Scotland is that every second story appears to start with "The Scottish Executive has announced...", without any attempt at making a story relevant. They seem to think it's acceptable to simply replay what a pile of politicians are saying and not make any attempt at explaining why anyone should care.

But I suppose my main problem with Reporting Scotland (and BBC Scotland output in general) isn't really the parliament, it's the terrible news agenda. The desperate attempt to cover the whole country, which means that absolutely tedious stories from Orkney are covered simply because they are from Orkney, and not because of any journalistic reason. Newsnight Scotland last night had a really tedious 10 minute story about the success or otherwise of new towns because one is being built just outside Inverness. That would never have been run if it was a new development just outside Glasgow or Edinburgh, it was a crap story - it was simply there to box-tick.

And that's where my real objection to treating Scotland as one region comes from. If the areas were split up into north, south, east and west, or some equivalent, or even if there were local opt-outs, then there would be no need for this. And the regions would be big enough to ensure there are enough good stories, avoiding the 'how much is a tin of tuna?' stories of some of the more desperate English regions.

And my problem with the parliament's reaction is that it smacks of self-interest - if more regional news was provided, then the BBC would be able to find local stories of interest and not need to nip down to the parliament to hear Scottish politicians wittering on about sod all. I'm aware that political coverage is important, but in context - the BBC just seems to report any old crap in parliament as opposed to reserving its coverage for important matters.

The BBC should really look at Scottish TV - far better coverage on a millionth of the budget. It's criticised for doing too many crime stories, but it also covers parliament, but in a more relevant and entertaining way to viewers (and not, for example, a 10 minute live from Holyrood). And there's no need to do tedious 'a new type of bird has been found on the Shetlands' stories.