How well I remember the excitement of, jings, 36 years ago, when Channel 4 burst on to our screens, augmenting the three channels with which Scotland (and the rest of the UK) had managed through the 1970s.
It’s not that I’m against BBC Scotland, really, just that I had thought we already had it. The new version, supplanting BBC2 Scotland but with all-tartan output, doesn’t strike me as offering much that the BBC, in its Scottish incarnation, didn’t have before. And certainly nothing that could not have been achieved without the trouble of a new channel and expense of £32 million a year.
Read more: iPlayer to boost BBC Scotland viewing figures but real test is coverage of big events
There’s perhaps a case for more Scottish news coverage, though not if you mean by that more news presented from a Nationalist perspective. But the BBC could easily have provided more independent (as opposed to independence) coverage with an opt-out of the kind regional news and magazine programmes already enjoy all over the UK. If we needed even more we could have sacrificed The One Show.
We could, come to think of it, have sacrificed almost anything, because hardly anyone watches live television now. Except for the news, live sport and things like Strictly, where viewers don’t want spoilers, not much TV need be consumed as it’s broadcast, or even on a television.
I’d rather have the BBC just put all quality Scottish repeats on the iPlayer, and opt out of English programmes when it has got decent new material to offer.
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