Salmond Wants Scottish Six

althourgh this cover NEWS: it also cover budge of the TV stations and more money of new programmes so it been put here:

in today;s Metro:

first Minster ( elect) is planing Crunch talks with TV chiefs to demand a Separate six O'clock news programmes

a report discovered that BBC spending in Scotland's has dropped from 7% to 4% while ITV share of spending has dropped form 3& to 2%

in a meeting with ITV boss: Micheal Grade and BBC Mark Thompson MR Salmond will demand that at least 9% of the Network budget is spent in Scotland.


I think he;s off his heed! what i would like to see is

STV name kept: ITV boarder Scotland change to STV south
a bit more independents off BBC Scotland to move TV show into better time slots than dumpling them all over the place
give STV a bit more control over there slots

But more spending on What?

I always feel so divided on the issue of a separate Six. On the one hand they say that the opinion polls say people prefer the current set up of news from London then Glasgow, and I do feel, despite the fact that the Six is dire the set up works

on occassions that the Six has Scottish stories high up the agenda...the airport attack, the whale in Aberdeen - these stories are essentially repeated on Rep. Scot. - they don't take them from a different angle, they are just done with BBC Scotland reporters. If a Scottish Six were to come about, it would have to have an element of analysis about it, and take part of Newsnight Scotlands agenda.

On broadcasting as a whole....I don't believe this should be a devolved matter, and should remain a Westminster issue.

Having a quota won't slove the lack of creative ideas and talent.

Also at the same time, its arguable that there should be a Northern Irish Six...especially now with devolution back up and running...

Perhaps a Scottish Breakfast or One would be better.

Or even a "Northern SIx" With NI and Scotland combined with their Six. That would Make the most sense.

Perhaps a standing arrangement would be better where if there was a particularly busy news day north of the border Scotland would drop the 6 and do an hour of Reporting Scotland which would include world and national news as well. But this would be an occasional thing when there was major news, and a facility that could be offered to the regions and other nations as well.

That makes no sense whatsoever. If BBC Scotland wants its own Six its because it wants more focus on issues relevant to its viewers. What Paisley n co are up to would be as relevant as what Brown n co are up to. As a Northern Irish viewer I have no more than a passing interest in Scottish affairs, which are less relevant to me than goings on in England!

Thats not to mention the headache that would give BBC Northern Ireland over its supposed neutrality.

Also I don't see the need for a Norn Irish Six, although Newsline is more heavyweight than any regional news show I don't think there's enough material to have an hour of news, look at UTV Live for example. Perhaps a better idea, considering UTV Live's popularity, would be to have a Norn Irish, or even Celtic, spin-off of the One Show after the News. I can see that being very successful if it avoids politics and sticks to a magazine-style.

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2810984/2/istockphoto_2810984_middle_finger.jpg

Don;t say that or there Ask for a New Spreate News channel:

I'm suprized that no one is wondering about the 5% increase on Both ITV and BBC

I keep hearing this argument but to be frank if anyone at the BBC is thinking straight this will never happen. The problem with on-demand news is that is continious, N24 can stick with one story for hours. A structured bulletin like the 1,6 or 10 provides people with a variety of stories and, more importantly, within a set time and that is what the majority of people want. Compare the ratings if you don't believe me.

Ah, The Scottish Six. I thought it'd been too long since that was mentioned.


Where I'd most strongly agree with this is that ANY nation and ANY region should, with a strong enough case, be able to drop the six alltogether and run locally for an hour. If any region is doing this, then at 6:30 the London presenters would then make a quick 5 minute summary which the local station could drop in at 6:55.

The big point which is always missed whenever a separate Scottish programme is mentioned is that Scotland isn't a special case - it's just being branded as one because it has the political clout of a devolved parliament which no other region/nation does. The same arguments apply for Wales, NI, and every English region.

And a a tangent here, If they are going to be making improvements to regional services, one thing that I'd like to see sorted out is the awful Channel Islands provision. It's beyond a joke that they STILL tack the CI onto the South West region and give it only a small opt out of a completely irrelevant local news programme from Plymouth. I find it amazing that they justify TWO local radio stations but can't get a standalone TV news operation together, even though the shoestring run Channel Television has been doing it for 45 years.


I don't see it myself. Everyone who can get BBC3 and 4 can also get News 24, yet it doesn't stop news being broadcast on those channels. And in the past (and on the commercial side too), Sky One still had it's own separate news provision right up until 2000.

On top of everything else, viewer surveys seem to indicate that generally, most people living in Scotland don't want a full time separate news service. Finishing on a pres note - I noticed the other day that Reporting Scotland STILL has the original generic titles from 1999! Do any insiders up there know if they'll EVER be replaced. When the generic branding idea is *starting* to turn around again (Spotlight even has it's lighthouse back...even if in a very limited way), I find it odd that RS still soldiers on with the same old sequence.

I totally agree, look at it in the States where they have plenty of 24hr news programmes from the various news providers BUT people stay with the networks for their news - except for certain extravaganza events such as the 9/11 - which is exactly what happens over here. People stick with the network news but only conitunally watch the news channels for big stories such as terrorist attacks or more recently, the floods

But who does he want to present it...someone who is not a journalist, so perhaps Moira is in a with a shout
If they cannot sort out Reporting Scotland's move to PQ - I wonder how they would cope with international coverage "We were due to report from Baghdad, but we could not afford a journalist to cover the story - coz we're skint...so moving on..." I can just see it now.

The problem will always be the use of resources... a reporter in Baghdad would always do the London based programme first for example. I'm not so sure the Scottish Six is actually the answer anymore - news is far more of an interactive, on-demand world than it was even in 2003.