A former director general of the BBC has warned Scots would have to pay a high price to watch much-loved programmes after independence.

Lord Birt also told fellow peers that the BBC would make far fewer programmes about Scotland and a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation would only have about a tenth of the budget the corporation now enjoys.

And the new Scottish Broadcasting Corporation could find itself in a financial bind, he said. "The BBC will have no alternative whatsoever but to act in the interests of licence fee payers," which would no longer include Scots, he said.

"That would mean the BBC would "seek the best possible commercial deals for the sale of its programmes in Scotland..."