Scottish Six O Clock News

They should wise up.  

If that's their view, then why don't the BBC just abandon all BBC News bulletins and let the nations do it themselves.

If Reporting Scotland can do it currently in 30 minutes, why do they need more?

Super In Depth coverage on the bad weather with live reports from every possible Road Junction?  

BBC Northern Ireland are already doing the same thing with Watchdog, we now get our own local version, as Watchdog mainly dealt with big companies that aren't available over here.

The local UTV crime programme which was axed, is looks set to moveg to BBC Northern Ireland and according to a senior BBC figure looks set to run parallel with Crimewatch UK, provisionally called Crimewatch NI and possibly taking over CW UK's slot.

After all, we over here don't care and have in now way any possibility to help identify a mugger from Tumbridge-Wells when we have our own crime over here which very rarely get's featured. I think the last one was a few years ago.

The whole nations taking over has already started, it just hasn't reached the stage of local/national news.


(Edited by peterrocket at 7:12 pm on Dec. 29, 2001)

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tv.home/forum/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tv.home/forum/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tv.home/forum/emoticons/biggrin.gif <Claps, cheers!>

And I thought I was the only one!

I can see the Nats point, the BBC News from London is, largely, made up of political stories that affect England + Wales only.

I agree with abouve sentiments of an opt-out from stories irrelevant to Scotland, but then again are English and Welsh affairs really *irrelevant* to Scotland?

And keeping to the forum topic, it could spawn some interesting variations from the generic theme. White and blue titles? Who knows?

I would be happy with the status quo. The BBC have played into the Nats hands enough IMHO. Newsnight Scotland which is a loada crap, and a separate Holyrood programme when some of us prefer Westminster Live. What is the point of having Scottish opt-outs from the budget? The same rules apply throughout the UK bar the bit at the very end about health and education spending. All that takes is for Dimbleby or whoever to say 'Except in Scotland where the Holyrood parliament decides health and education spending'. Not exactly brain surgery. Thank God for generic BBC 2 on Sky Digital.

Of course they even crop parliament to 14:9 now

i have to say i dont usually agree with scots/welsh nationalists, although i wouldnt loose any sleep if the declared independance.

it was my understanding, that the opt in the headlines was to 'address' the problem of the relavance of the mainstories around the country - but i dont see any difference between that, or having a promo before the news, as it was before.

but - there is little point viewers in england hearing about scottish education - or vice versa. so maybe an opt out during the programme, for main stories sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 - then a more relaxed reporting scotland at 6:30?

then viewers in england will also be more likely to get england only matters reported.

it could even be taken a step further - a major story in birmingham (eg, rover takeover), could allow midlands today to opt out between 6:00 and 6:10 - as they could provide longer coverage, whilst the rest of the country hears other news.

NI also loses Question Time one week every month for Let's Talk, the NI version.

BTW NI also has a digital zone like 2W, called BBC TWO NI, the main analogue BBC TWO Northern Ireland is only branded BBC TWO now, although I have seen an NI-branded ident played out by mistake on analogue.

Now I like the 6 O'clock news etc. However, I have to agree that some stories are just about England and Wales. Or England and Northern Ireland. Usually Scotland is left out.

But wait...... What is at 6:30. REPORTING SCOTLAND. What the hell do they want to show at 6:30 then!

This is absolute crap and I will protest over this. Keep the News @ 6 as it is.

The idea of an opt-out within the main news programme is a good one, but it just makes life very complicated. For example, the opt-out would have to be the same length and time every day - or it would be impossible to plan what stories would go where within the national bulletin.

However - that would mean that, if the opt-out was 10 minutes right in the middle, a really important story that only affected England might have to be saved for half way through the programme, whereas nationally relevant, but not as important news would be placed higher up the running order - a shambles! And what if there's breaking Scottish news after the opt-out has been recorded/transmitted? What if there is not enough Scottish news to fill out the time? What if there is too much? On top of which, it just makes a mess by having part of the programme with a different presenter - or recorded.

It would be simpler in all ways to make a special 'News at Six - Scottish Edition', in London with a regular, not necessarily Scottish presenter that has a distinctly differerent remit from the local-news on RS, but focussed on Scottish interest stories and spent less time on less relevant matters. While I think nationalism sometimes goes too far, it's true, it must be frustrating when Some MSP has made an important speech or been caught with his pants down, and Huw Edwards is finishing the bulleting with a Duck that learned Esperanto or something.

One last thing - there is already a Scottish Gaelic channel called TeleG - it is on DTT channel 18 in Scotland and broadcasts every day between 6 and 7 PM - No idea what it does or who owns it.

When this idea was originally thrown about, I was very sceptical.

However, I now have four words for you.

'Good Morning Scotland' and 'Newsdrive'.

These programmes (on Radio Scotland for those south of the border) have proved that BBC Scotland is very good at doing national and international, as well as local, news. I get very annoyed at having to sit and watch a whole load of stories about what's going on with politics/health/education in England and Wales when it doesn't affect me when there are big Scottish stories of quite a lot of relevance that don't get covered nationally until about 6:20 if at all.

If it could be made to the same standard as the Six, I'm all for it. After all, it surely wouldn't cost that much extra (considering most of the reports would already be there). It would just be a case of reordering the hour of news for more relevance to Scotland.

I reckon they should try it.

Keeping slightly on topic...
There are ideas & plans being thrown around the Beeb about creating the largest video server network in Broadcasting (Beeb don't do things by halves !!). A central server would hold all programmes to be broadcast on all BBC (including regional opts) & UK channels for 14 or so days. Access to this server would be via a brand new digital network linking all the regions to it. This would enable regions to opt-out of network far more easily & play out such programmes as Eastenders at a suitable time for their region on demand from London or wherever the server will be located, rather than have to dub a copy of the master tape & be sent to them either 'down the line' or in the post.

If the main server were to die, the regions own server would have routinely downloaded that days programming the night before so they play direct from their own server or share resources from another regions server.

Also, if this were to come to fruition, there is no reason why the Newsrooms up & down the country couldn't link their own servers to the national 'stream' and share stories instantly. Therefore (this is where I get back on topic!) Scotland could run a carbon copy of the National 6 News and have instant access to all material available to London and all other regions, and still have their own unique running order. Good eh?!

This of course is all pie in the sky at the moment, and many many years away, but people are looking into it. Thought you might be interested.


(Edited by Techy Peep at 12:07 pm on Dec. 30, 2001)

Bloody hell! http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tv.home/forum/emoticons/shocked.gif

Interested? Just a bit!!! Very cool! From what I remember from Radio, at the moment all the national (kind of syndicated) news clips are sent round to the various newsrooms, ie glasgow, cardiff, each hour in one file and then they have to be split into the reports. I may be wrong in that though.

If I'm right, it seems a very time-consuming method of doing things - this central server would make very good sense!

(that last par, btw, was me realising that the first part really didn't link into the quote...)

Yeap, it's something I'm very interested in too!

I don't think there's really any need for a Scottish 6 o'clock News as it's not meant to be regional it's meant to be international - covering stories from around the world (including Scotland, if the stories are important enough for an international news bulletin).

What I do think wouldn't be a bad idea is actually having regional news in Scotland at 6.30pm - and, indeed, in Northern Ireland and Wales. All that's currently available is 'Reporting Scotland' which is obviously a national programme. Splitting Scotland up into regions in the same way as England (e.g. BBC Scotland South, BBC Scotland Central etc) would allow for far broader, in-depth coverage of local news. This is especially important, for example, for people who have to watch Boring Border for regional news: although they try and cover Scottish stories, the maximum they ever reach in their 6pm bulletin is 3 - really quite worrying for coverage of the whole of southern Scotland!