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BBC should be Federal

BBC 'must catch up with devolution' (September 2015)

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NT
NorthTonight
DTV posted:
The SNP want it every which way that is possible with the BBC. If the BBC pledged to spend 9% of the license fee on Scottish only programming for Scotland made in Scotland, then they'd say that the quality was pish. They are supposedly part of this understanding, progressive, pro-public sector alliance - yet are putting forward proposals that would cost the BBC a fortune at a time that it's being f*cked from every angle by the government. BBC Scotland don't have the facilities to make more programming for Scotland or network as it stands - the SNP have pledged multiple times for a Media City in Pacific Quay but these plans have never been completed. It's not like they've been in government for eight years.

Other than the nationalism, I'm ideologically very similar to the SNP and Plaid but what the SNP are doing here is similar to the UKIP stance on the EU. They are propping up the BBC as some kind of establishment, anti-Scottish organisation, (which it isn't) throwing bias allegations (which apart from one Nick Robinson incident that he has apologised for are baseless) at them and trying to put the Beeb in the 'them' category. It's classic nationalism and no different from other nationalist parties from the left and the right. You create an insider 'us' grouping and an outsider 'them' grouping. They are stirring up the sh*t left behind from one poorly worded question from the former Political Editor. Alex Salmond will happily go on the pile-of-sh*te RT and slag of the BBC, but I doubt he's refusing to cash those cheques from his numerous appearances on This Week and probably HIGNFY which I'll expect him to return to. The SNP are trying for a fight with the BBC, the BBC shouldn't rise to it. If the SNP were serious about this Scottish culture village then they would have started on it by now, they haven't, they're just using it as a stick to beat the BBC with.

When they get independence and set up the SBS denying the BBC of money - I hope that BBC Worldwide charges them double for the rights to broadcast their shows. Why should the BBC give programmes for free to a foreign broadcaster that would, in that scanerio, be partially responsible for a gaping whole in funding.


Well said. The fact IMO that BBC Scotland produces such tripe doesn't help either. If you want to argue further, BBC Scotland like the SNP again IMO, doesn't represent the whole country, but mainly the central belt, with the exception of BBC Alba which again only caters for a minority of the country.
DV
dvboy
Glasgow makes alot of crappy network gameshows, why not get glasgow to make better stuff?

At least they're making stuff there.
The amount of programming being made in the Midlands has dwindled over the years to almost nothing now.
:-(
A former member
dvboy posted:
Glasgow makes alot of crappy network gameshows, why not get glasgow to make better stuff?

At least they're making stuff there.
The amount of programming being made in the Midlands has dwindled over the years to almost nothing now.


It not helped by the fact there is no big studios.
MK
Mr Kite
I would like regional BBC stations (not just Scotland or Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) to have an allocated budget, allowing them to decide where and how to spend it on regional output, a bit more like in days past. Everything, in England at least, is too centralised and generic. I think it would allow more innovation and experimentation than currently happens. That would be an internal BBC decision though. Broadcasting laws and legislation should remain a nationwide (as in British) competence. The SNP should be told straight the word 'no' and that it isn't negotiable.
JA
james-2001
The SNP should be told straight the word 'no' and that it isn't negotiable.


They were told "No" on the 18th September last year and don't seem to have taken that hint.
PC
p_c_u_k
We need to separate Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon first of all. The former was an excellent politician who took Scottish independence to a level which it would never have reached without him. Problem is, at the tipping point, it seems the stress and madness of trying to achieve such a huge goal got to him and he became the sort of guy you wouldn't trust in charge of a brewery. Had the Yes campaign somehow been able to substitute the more measured Sturgeon at the 11th hour without it coming across as some sort of crisis the result could have been very different. As it stood, while being open to an independent Scotland while understanding why others didn't feel that way, I'm slightly relived Salmond didn't lead us into that brave new world.

Sturgeon, on the other hand, has also criticised the BBC but in a much more nuanced way, and called for a federal structure which had been supported within the organisation in the past. You can't criticise her for trying to maximise Scottish output from the corporation. That is entirely her gig. It's for the corporation to say: "This can't happen" and explain why.

We are in a very strange post-referendum world up here where people said No, but not entirely convincingly. More of a not proven verdict rather than a not guilty. Without careful handling in the next 10 years Scotland may bugger off. Many of you may well say: "Great, wish they would", and that's fine, but I'm quite sure that's not the feeling of the UK Government.
JA
james-2001
I wouldn't say it wasn't convincingly, it's just the SNP have been sulking and shouting because they didn't like the result. If it had been one vote over 50% for "Yes", you can guarantee that would have been convincing enough for them.
RI
Rijowhi
I agree with the theory that the BBC should be Federal/Regional, for BBC1 at least. As for BBC2/BBC3 and BBC4, maybe the channels should be scrapped (what!), with Channel 4 sold to the BBC to create a part Advertising/part Licence Fee based Broadcaster? To keep competition in News, maybe they could stop the BBC supplying News programming to Channel 4 (staying with ITN?). To make sure BBC programming doesn't dominate the channel, there could be quotas to make sure independents still get to screen their programming. Not sure it would save much if any money, but might allow the BBC more room to wriggle in the future...
NE
Neil__
I agree with the theory that the BBC should be Federal/Regional, for BBC1 at least. As for BBC2/BBC3 and BBC4, maybe the channels should be scrapped (what!), with Channel 4 sold to the BBC to create a part Advertising/part Licence Fee based Broadcaster? To keep competition in News, maybe they could stop the BBC supplying News programming to Channel 4 (staying with ITN?). To make sure BBC programming doesn't dominate the channel, there could be quotas to make sure independents still get to screen their programming. Not sure it would save much if any money, but might allow the BBC more room to wriggle in the future...

What?
dbl, SomeRandomStuff and dosxuk gave kudos
GO
gottago
I agree with the theory that the BBC should be Federal/Regional, for BBC1 at least. As for BBC2/BBC3 and BBC4, maybe the channels should be scrapped (what!), with Channel 4 sold to the BBC to create a part Advertising/part Licence Fee based Broadcaster? To keep competition in News, maybe they could stop the BBC supplying News programming to Channel 4 (staying with ITN?). To make sure BBC programming doesn't dominate the channel, there could be quotas to make sure independents still get to screen their programming. Not sure it would save much if any money, but might allow the BBC more room to wriggle in the future...

This is all dross.

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