THE “long overdue” new Scottish television channel has been greeted with optimistic glee, a response partly out of shock (“’Scottish Nine’ will lead new £30m BBC channel”, The Herald, February 23). However, after some hours of reflection and in the (current) very cold light of day this “gift” of a five-hour TV channel for Scotland from the British Broadcasting Corporation is at best patronising but in the current political context it is frankly shameful. It reeks of a sop to quell the drive for a new Scottish constitutional arrangement.

My last proper job prior to retirement was programme manager T for a small(ish) Caribbean state broadcaster. Established 50 years ago by a departing colonial UK Government, it was built, planned and budgeted to offer a very limited schedule, eventually settling on a five-hour broadcasting window (6pm -11pm). But that was more than 30 years ago in a developing nation with a population the size of Edinburgh.

Scotland, even under the auspices of the BBC, can and should do better than the derogatory five-hour offer provided.

With local content provision of at least 70 per cent offering a split schedule (breakfast, lunch-time and evening programming) BBC Scotland should be able to provide at least double the current offer.

The major 9pm news is quite frankly a nonsense. The 9pm post-watershed slot has been established as a major drama strand . Sticking a major Scottish news at that time is to marginalise, indeed hide, its presence, guaranteeing weak ratings. A “Six” or better a “Seven” major news must be included in any development of this new proposal brought north by Lord Hall, who doesn’t sound Greek.

Thom Cross,

18 Needle Green, Carluke.

AYE, but, would seem to be the general reaction to the new TV channel for the BBC in Scotland. No Scottish Six means we'll still only get "the news where we are" after being regaled with the "national" news which usually contains many items which don't affect Scotland, such as the Southern Rail shenanigans, England's revolting prisons, the crisis-hit English NHS, the English education system and so on. Given that the new channel will only be on air from 7pm until midnight, perhaps it could be called the Scottish Five.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.

ONE has to congratulate the BBC Director-General Tony Hall. At a stroke he has “ca’ed the feet” from all those demanding a separate Scotland News at Six, by offering instead a completely new BBC Scotland TV channel, including a daily 9pm one-hour news and current affairs programme covering local, UK and international news from a Scottish perspective. That seems to me to be an excellent decision which we should welcome.

While I agree that the current Six O’clock News very often gives preference to “national” items that relate only to England, I have never understood why this late afternoon time is regarded as so critical. At that time thousands of commuters around the country are still travelling home, or are preparing evening meals or supervising homework, and are unlikely to be desperate for the latest news. And if they are, they can easily access the BBC’s continuous hourly news service.

I welcome the idea of a “Scottish Nine”, which will provide the opportunity to cover all the day’s news relating to Scotland, but also the rest of the UK and around the world from a Scottish aspect if relevant, and will also allow enough time to provide some comment and analysis. The only disadvantage is that at 9 pm it will be competing with some of the popular drama serials and general interest programmes on other channels, and there may be some family problems about what to watch.

Iain AD Mann,

7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

WELL done the BBC in standing firm on the Scottish Six that the majority of us did not want.

The new BBC Scotland channel has caught many unawares in a bold attempt to keep everyone happy. Yet the BBC knows there are some who will never be content, such as SNP MP John Nicholson, who could not stop himself making some small-minded comments in response about the BBC News reporting too much English news. Thankfully the majority are sufficiently open0minded to view any UK news as of interest and relevant rather than having their antennae set on full nationalist grievance mode.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.

IS there not a simple solution involving no significant cost which should satisfy those, not including me, clamouring for a Scottish Six news broadcast on BBC TV and who are not satisfied by the proposed programme at 9pm? Why does the BBC not take a leaf out of the STV book and in Scotland simply reverse the televised order of the news programmes presently shown on BBC1 at 6pm and 6.30pm respectively, by recording the former whilst the latter is shown from 6pm? Those (including me) unhappy with this could always tune in at 6pm to the BBC News available on Freeview channel 130, whilst recording the BBC 1 Scottish news programme to watch later if we wanted to.

Alan Fitzpatrick,

10 Solomon's View, Dunlop.