BBC Scotland to launch new channel

A reminder that England gets BBC Local Radio something that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland(*) don't. Their National Radio services are in no way comparable. I'd suggest that this investment goes someway to balance that in the overall scheme of things.

(*) Radio Foyle being the exception.

But the BBC Local Radio budget is only £115 million for the whole of England with a population of over 50 million, whilst the BBC Scotland budget is £86 million according to Wikipedia (not the most reliable source I know), and soon to be increased by £30 million given the recent news, despite serving a population of just over 5 million. I'm not for one minute saying that BBC Scotland should receive the same level of service as an English Region, but I just think it's a little unjust to claim viewers in Scotland are hard done to as a result of the current set-up. Surely just have launching the Scottish Six would have been much easier and cheaper than launching a whole new channel.

There are opt outs of Radio Scotland too, but they are very part time.
Why Orkney only gets half an hour in the morning and Shetland half an hour in the evening heaven only knows.

It could be argued that with a combined budget of over £25m for Radio Scotland and Radio Nan Gaidheal, compared to a budget of £115 for all 39 local stations in England and the Channel Islands, averaging at under £3m each, listeners north of the border are hardly being neglected.

The infrastructure is in place to provide regionalised opt outs within Scotland (DAB may need some work) and on those budgets it seems reasonable that the existing funding could be allocated in a different way to provide more hours of opt outs if there was demand.

Source - Service licenses on http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/services/radio/service_licences.html

Perhaps it's worth writing to the culture secretary to ask why Scotland is being regarded as more preferential by the BBC, for which we ALL pay equal fees to get, than other parts of the UK. Will Wales get its own channel? Will NI? Will England get its own regional, 7pm - midnight channels to cater for those who are interested in what affects them locally? Or, will it be proven that this is gerrymandering to political situations in which the Government and the BBC are trying to keep Scotland sweet over Brexit? Because, whilst the SNP are in power in Scotland,no matter what is given to the Scots, according to the Scottish Parliament, it will NEVER be good enough.

Well if you have nothing else to do...

If you want things done fairly then you have to contact the appropriate people.....

Nope, increase is £19 million

It is rumoured that Martin Parr is already dusting off his camera equipment and formulating ideas for "Scottishness"

Two bagpipe players washing down a deep fried Mars bar with a can of Irn Bru... just an idea...

Some Welsh AMs have been calling the announcement an insult to Wales. Clearly forgetting that the BBC already funds a Welsh television channel with more than four times the budget.

And a channel that exists for a very good reason: catering for Welsh speakers.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more satisfying to the Scottish Parliament if they had just launched BBC Parliament Scotland? Uninterrupted coverage of the Scottish Parliament, filled in with replays of Scottish news reports.