New BBC TV channel is a ‘shot in the arm’ for Scottish journalism

Director-general Tony Hall outside the BBC.

A NEW TV channel for the BBC in Scotland will bring 80 new journalist posts to Scotland.

The BBC’s director-general Tony Hall has announced that the new channel, BBC Scotland, will begin broadcasting in autumn 2018.

He said: “At the heart of this new channel will be an hour-long news.”

The Scottish news hour will begin at 9pm and broadcast stories from Scotland, the UK and the world.

The channel, which will broadcast nightly from 7pm to midnight, will have a prominent slot on Electronic Programme Guides, and will also be available on iPlayer across the UK.

It will have a budget of £30m, equivalent to the amount spent on BBC4.

The director-general also announced an increase of about £20m a year for Scotland to make UK-wide programmes –a rise from the current £65m of spending.

Lord Hall described it as the biggest single investment in broadcast content in Scotland for more than 20 years.

He said: "We know that viewers in Scotland love BBC television but we also know that they want us to better reflect their lives and better reflect modern Scotland.

"The best way of achieving this is a dedicated channel for Scotland.

"It's a channel that will be bold, creative and ambitious, with a brand-new Scotland-edited international news programme at its heart."

The new BBC TV channel for Scotland will broadcast every evening and will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made in Scotland.

Scottish government has long argued for a new BBC Scotland channel and first minister Nicola Sturgeon welcomed today’s announcement.

She said: "Commitments to new investment and 80 additional jobs for journalists is long overdue and very positive."

Paul Holleran, Scottish organiser for journalists' union The NUJ, said it was a "shot in the arm" for Scottish journalism.

However, he said the amount of investment "falls well short" of what the BBC management and unions in Scotland were looking for.

Lord Hall said Scotland already made network programmes such as Shetland, Two Doors Down and Still Game but it needed to make more.

He said the additional £20m for making UK-wide programmes would be a "huge boost for BBC Scotland and for the creative industries in Scotland".