BBC claims Scottish Six calls ‘driven by politics’
SENIOR BBC figures believe proposals for a ‘Scottish Six’ news bulletin are politically driven and would mean Scots missing out on reports by its top correspondents. The Scottish Daily Mail understands they also believe the current UK-wide News at Six is popular north of the Border, and are reluctant to make changes to a successful product.
That follows a poll earlier this year which showed only a third of viewers actually want to see the News at Six axed in Scotland and replaced by an hour-long Scottish bulletin.
Meanwhile, Professor Hugh Pennington, a former vice chairman of the Broadcasting Council for Scotland, wrote in a national newspaper yesterday that he feared losing access to a ‘UK perspective’ and ‘top BBC reporters’.
And senior sources at the BBC have told the Mail that leading correspondents, such as Laura Kuenssberg, Katya Adler and Jeremy Bowen would struggle to find time for a Scottish Six.
One said: ‘If you have got one single correspondent on the scene of a big story then the Scottish Six will not be their priority.’
Westminster’s cross-party culture committee backed a Scottish Six in its report on charter renewal earlier this week.
The BBC has always insisted it will be driven by what is best for viewers, rather than political pressure.
But the source said: ‘There is a political push for it in some quarters, but equally the six o’clock news is already doing very well in Scotland.
‘If a product is doing well in its existing form, then it is a bigger call to change it. Also, it wouldn’t be free – and there are already pressures on the licence fee.’
They added: ‘If you look at a day where there is a lot of news about England, a Scottish Six would be the right thing to do. But if you look at a day where there is the attack in Nice, and there is no Scottish angle, it is tougher to argue a case.’
Another senior insider was positive about the idea, but questioned whether the funding was available.
‘It sounds really sensible to me, but there is a lot to be worked out. It is hard to argue for extra resources at a time when the BBC is supposed to be shrinking,’ they said.
The BBC’s director of news and current affairs, James Harding, recently announced a 10 per cent cut to its current affairs budget to help the broadcaster’s attempt to save £550million by 2021-22.
Professor Pennington, an expert microbiologist, had previously been in favour of Scottish Six.
But in a letter to The Scotsman he wrote: ‘I have changed my mind. I still want the Six I see in Aberdeen covering big issues like Zika, the US presidential election, Jeremy Corbyn, Syria, Trident, and Brexit from a UK perspective, by top BBC reporters.’
However, John Nicolson, Nationalist MP and a culture committee member, insisted it will be no problem for correspondents to make themselves available to the Scottish Six, even when there is a clash with the UK news. ‘There’s lots of ways round that,’ he said.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘Ultimately our main aim is to provide the best news offer possible and that is why we’re exploring a number of possible formats.’