New Scottish news channel will use all BBC’s resources says Lord Hall

A flagship news programme being created as part of a brand new television channel for Scotland will be able to draw on the global resources of the BBC, the director general of the corporation pledged.

Tony Hall said the plans for a new hour-long bulletin for Scotland encompassing Scottish, UK and international news “could teach a few lessons to news broadcasters around the world”.

The bulletin will be a key part of the schedule of a new BBC Scotland channel, which will have an annual budget of £30 million and is due to go on air next autumn.

BBC chiefs unveiled the plans, which will also see 80 new journalists hired, to staff at their Pacific Quay Scottish headquarters in Glasgow on Wednesday.

The announcement comes after pressure on the BBC to establish a “Scottish Six” news bulletin – an hour-long programme which would replace both the current UK-wide news programme at 6pm and the Scottish bulletin, which goes on air immediately afterwards.

Lord Hall told MSPs that putting the new flagship news bulletin out at 9pm, when there are no other news programmes broadcast, would allow producers in Scotland to draw on the global resources of the BBC.

The director general made the pledge when he appeared before MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Culture Committee, alongside BBC Scotland director Donalda MacKinnon and director of nations and regions Ken MacQuarrie.

Lord Hall said: “I think the BBC is a team and I very much want Donalda to draw on the resources of the whole BBC, behind BBC Scotland the channel and all the things we do.

“I know that we can put the entire resources, journalist resources, global as well as UK, behind a news at nine o’clock for an hour.

“Talking to the teams yesterday, I think they can do something which is really new and fresh, using all the resources of BBC, which I think could teach a few lessons to news broadcasters around the world. I’m really excited by that proposition.”

The BBC will increase its spending on news in Scotland to more than £7 million a year, Lord Hall added.

“That’s going to benefit not just the new nine o’clock news but also Reporting Scotland, BBC Alba and Radio nan Gaidheal,” he said.

Lord Hall hailed the plans for the new BBC Scotland channel, which will broadcast from 7pm till midnight every day, as being the “foundations for an ambitious future”.

He added: “Yesterday was a declaration of intent, to significantly increase our support for the Scottish creative economy.

“When others are cutting back, we’re investing, as we should be.”

He also said the move would go “some way to raising the amount of licence fee spent in Scotland versus what is actually raised here”.

The flagship news bulletin on the new BBC Scotland channel could be anopportunity to “reinvent the way we see broadcast news”, Lord Hall said.

Tory MSP Jackson Carlaw raised concerns that the hour-long slot could be filled by “MSPs on sofas waffling” on slow news days.

Mr Carlaw asked the director general: “Can you please reassure me that on a lean news day it won’t be six MSPs on sofas waffling for 20 minutes?”

While the new show will be informed by pilots of a Scottish Six that have been produced by BBC Scotland workers, the director general told the committee: “There are very few chances we have to reinvent the way we see broadcast news but this could be one of them.”

He added: “This programme will have access to John Sopel (BBC North America editor) or whatever they want to do.

“We’ve got an enormous news-gathering operation around the world. I would love to see more of it on the air.”

Committee convener Joan McAlpine questioned the amount of resources being put behind the new BBC Scotland, telling BBC chiefs: “You spent £60 million, for example, commissioning Match of the Day rights, so £30 million, it doesn’t go that far.”

Ms McAlpine went on to state that currently only 55% of the licence-fee cash raised in Scotland is spent in the country and while this will rise as a result of additional cash, she said it was “still a long way behind Northern Ireland at 75% and Wales at 95%”

She asked: “Are we going to get to a position where Scotland has parity with those other nations in the UK?”

Lord Hall conceded 2015-16 was “not a good year” for the proportion of licence-fee money spent in Scotland, but said that would rise to 68% with the new channel.

He said: “We’re moving and we’re shifting, and I think the challenge now to BBC Scotland and ourselves is to see whether in terms of the network spending we can do more than we are currently committing to do.

“That depends on good ideas, that depends on winning commissions.”