£30m isn’t enough for new BBc scotland
NICOLA Sturgeon says the new BBC Scotland channel will need an annual budget of much more than the proposed £30million.
And the First Minister questioned the decision to broadcast in standard rather than high definition.
In February, the BBC announced they will create a new Scottish channel as part of the “biggest single investment” in the corporation north of the Border for more than 20 years. It is due to begin broadcasting from autumn 2018.
In a keynote speech at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Sturgeon said: “The new proposed BBC channel [has] a budget of £30million and there are already questions about whether that will be sufficient. If we think back to the broadcasting commission a decade ago, it proposed an annual budget of £75million for a new network in Scotland.
“The fact that the new channel will only be broadcast on standard definition could also limit its appeal. For drama, in particular, viewers increasingly expect high definition to be available.”
Sturgeon also reckons Scottish broadcasting is being “short-changed”. She added: “Approximately 72 per cent of the licence fee raised in Scotland will be spent in Scotland. In Wales and Northern Ireland, it’s 98 per cent.
“Even with the BBC’s new commitments, we won’t have parity with these countries.”