BBC Scotland to have its own director of drama and director of comedy in corporation shake up

The BBC will be given clear obligations designed to ensure it properly serves audiences north of the Border, he said.

Last night Tony Hall, the director general of the BBC, said he wants to introduce several changes to BBC Scotland, including a new head of drama and a head of comedy based in Glasgow.

Hall also signals the beginning of further devolution for BBC Scotland - he wants it to have a new licence agreement, or list of responsibilities and pledges, which will provide "clear accountability", he says in a new letter to Fiona Hyslop, Scotland's culture secretary.

The new drama commissioner for Scotland is a new role and will be appointed later this year.

The new commissioner will have a "portrayal" objective, so that programming "better reflects the lives of audiences."

The BBC website will be re-modelled for each nation, mirrored in nation-specific changes to the BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and the BBC Homepage.

Hall also said he wants to make Scotland one of the BBC's centre for excellence for factual television production, mirroring the success of drama in Wales.

Mr Hall adds: "If implemented, this will provide clear accountability for the services provided in each nation, and much more ability to shift resources around within each nation's dedicated services, further devolving decision making to the nations."

The outcomes of the changes in the White Paper will be reviewed by the watchdog Ofcom, the first time in its 90-year history that the BBC will be regulated by an external organisation.

The plans will also preserve the licence fee, allowing it to rise in line with inflation from its current £145.50 level over the next five years.

Those watching the iPlayer will also have to pay for the first time.

Scotland will also get a specific 'Scottish member' on a newly-created BBC Board, which will replace the current BBC Trust.

The representative will be selected by the UK Government in consultation with Scottish ministers.

However, Ms Hyslop said the plans did “not deliver on all of our policy ambitions and much of the detail is yet to emerge, so there is clearly a job of work to be done in continuing to argue Scotland’s case.”

The charter also includes a commitment to Gaelic broadcasting and to ensure that programmes continue to be made in Scotland.

Scottish ministers will get a role in any future charter review, while the BBC will have to lay annual reports before Holyrood.

The BBC will also commit to fund 150 journalists in local news organisations across the UK to cover local issues such as council meetings.

But the SNP protested that the changes did not nearly go far enough.

A furious row also erupted about the separate issue of a possible Scottish Six, to replace the current six of clock news after an SNP MP denounced Reporting Scotland as "ludicrously provincial".

James Purnell, the former culture secretary who is now director of strategy and digital at the BBC, said that the broadcaster needed high salaries to attract "brilliant people like Chris Evans".

Labour also accused the Tories of "ideologically driven meddling" after they ordered the BBC to provide "distinctive content" rather than simply competing for ratings with commercial rivals.

The move will alter the original mission statement of the BBC, described by its first director general, the Scottish broadcaster Lord Reith,

An insider said: "Serious money and effort is going into making the BBC website into a series of national pages, but there may not be enough money to create new content for those pages,which may undermine that effort," the source said.

"We is also a big internal debate about whether there will be a UK website at all, or just national pages.

"And it will also be interesting to see, under the Creative Review, if the BBC move a big department to Scotland at all."