BBC to scrap Scotland TV news shows and divert resource to websites (sound familiar?)

Behind Local News
Behind Local News UK
3 min readMay 7, 2024

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The BBC has signalled it plans to bolster online news teams in Scotland at the expense of TV reporting — effectively replicating the approach which has prompted outrage in England.

Regulator Ofcom has indicated it is minded to approve a request from the BBC to reduce the number of hours of news TV the BBC produces in Scotland, with money invested instead in online services.

Under the plans, BBC Scotland’s TV news shows The Nine, broadcast for an hour Monday to Thursday on BBC Scotland — and The Seven, broadcast on Fridays to Sunday, would be dropped and replaced with a 30-minute programme at 7pm.

The BBC then intends to increase funding for its Debate Night show on BBC Scotland, and also give the Reporting Scotland programe the scope to grow from 30 minutes to an hour when major news events happen in Scotland.

But the line most likely to catch the eye is the plan to ‘build capability to deliver more innovative online reporting about Scotland on the BBC News website and the BBC News app.’

There will be no change to the BBC Scotland news budget as a result.

The new 7pm programme will be ‘focused on stories affecting communities across Scotland’ according to the BBC, suggesting a more localised lens for news than

The BBC said in its statement to Ofcom: “We believe this multi-platform news offer will enhance our ability to cater to audiences across all platforms and provide greater value for money for Scottish audiences.”

The BBC’s plans are likely to provoke a similar response from publishers to its decision to dismantle huge swathes of BBC local radio in England and instead invest in new roles in BBC online, effectively moving resource to directly compete with commercial publishers.

The BBC insists its move isn’t the reason why many local publishers are struggling to find a sustainable business model — but publishers say the BBC could be doing much more to help, rather than compete with publishers.

The BBC’s position is somewhat undermined by the 20% growth its bosses claim it is seeing in local news audiences online, at a time when many local news sites in the commercial sector are seeing year on year decline.

In its evidence to Ofcom, the BBC says it writes 7,000 stories a year on BBC Scotland in English and Gaelic.

Data from Ipsos Iris shows the BBC is already in strong position for its Scotland website, attracting 3.1m readers a month, viewing 27m page views a month. Only the Daily Record attracts more readers amongst Scottish-based brands.

However, in most cases, commercial news brands reach more people than the BBC service covering their specifc area. For example, the Courier in Dundee reaches more people that BBC Tayside, according to Ipsos Iris.

Ofcom has said it is minded to approve the BBC’s proposals, although the BBC has already announced it intends to scrap the TV programmes.

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