BBC Scotland is to launch a “quality” new weekly current affairs programme to replace Scotland 2016 which has been scrapped after failing to attract significant audiences, it has been claimed.
Last night saw the final transmission of Scotland 2016, the channel’s evening news programme on BBC 2.
The show, first broadcast in 2014 in place of Newsnight Scotland, was once dubbed a “dog’s breakfast” by Newsnight anchor Jeremy Paxman. While the decision over the format of a new Scottish Six evening news programme is debated within the corporation - one of the first subjects to be taken by new BBC Scotland director Donalda MacKinnon - the new current affairs show will “begin early in the New Year”, BBC insiders say.
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Scotland 2016 routinely attracted around 30,000 viewers and, BBC Scotland’s head of news Gary Smith has said, “struggled to find an audience”.
It failed to compete with STV rival Scotland Tonight, the country's most watched current affairs programme, which has an average audience of 85,000.
Last night one of the leading political supporters of the Scottish Six, SNP MP John Nicolson, a former broadcaster who sits on the House of Commons culture media and sport select committee, said there had been concern about the demise of Scotland 2016, which, he said was “often excellent but sometimes appeared underfunded”.
He added: “Specifically, I thought that, on occasion, there weren’t enough items on the running order to sustain the length of the show which led to overly long interviews not justified by the subject matter.”
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Mr Nicolson would like to see a Scottish Six “anchored in Scotland with a running order of national, UK, and international news based on the sound journalistic principle of news merit”.
He added: “I believe that the new head of news and current affairs in Scotland - Gary Smith - is as keen to deliver this as am I.”
Of the new weekly current affairs programme, he said BBC's plan was to create “a high quality weekly show". He added: “I was always a fan of the incisive set piece interview championed by ‘Weekend World’ and Brian Walden."
“I do think we need a format where our political leaders are subjected to forensic dissection.”
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David Hutchison, the honorary professor in media policy at Glasgow Caledonian University, said: “One general point that can be made about the ending of Scotland 2014/15/16 is that at least we will be spared the same subjects turning up on both programmes....a weekly current affairs programme, if done well, could add real value to Scottish programming, and who knows, if really successful might be extended to a twice weekly offering.”
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