Still Game to launch new BBC channel in New Year
...but it’s only on 5 hours a day
THE BBC has revealed the launch date for its controversial new TV channel.
The BBC Scotland channel will go live on February 24, with the final series of Still Game the first show to be aired.
The corporation was given the goahead to launch the £32million-a-year service following a ‘careful review’ by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom earlier this year.
BBC chiefs say the plans will create 140 jobs in Scotland over the next three years and a £4million digital design and engineering hub will be set up at its Pacific Quay headquarters in Glasgow.
But concerns have been raised that the number of new staff needed will ‘distort’ Scotland’s media industry.
BBC bosses said the channel would include a new flagship hour-long news
‘Absolutely thrilled’
bulletin covering ‘international, UK and Scottish stories, told from a Scottish perspective’.
Announcing the start date for the channel, the BBC said the new series of Still Game would debut there before screening on BBC1.
BBC comedy commissioning controller Shane Allen said: ‘Still Game’s huge and enduring popularity has earned its place as a modern sitcom masterpiece.
‘These much loved characters deliver the famous Glaswegian humour to screens across the nation with a show that bows out on a hilarious high and will be enjoyed by audiences for years to come.’
Still Game’s Greg Hemphill said: ‘Jack and Victor are a bottle being smashed on the bow of a beautiful ship and we’re absolutely thrilled to be launching Scot- land’s brand new digital channel with the last ever series of Still Game.’
Around half of the shows on the channel, which will be on air between 7pm and midnight every day, will be repeats.
The BBC unveiled plans for the channel in February last year, sparking fears this would hand it an unfair advantage over other Scottish news outlets.
The BBC dominates viewing in Scotland, with a 32 per cent audience share overall. But it has often come under pressure from senior SNP figures, including former leader Alex Salmond, to increase Scots programming.
Mr Salmond previously demanded BBC1 broadcast a so-called Scottish Six news programme in place of the UK network’s Six O’Clock News.
In April, Ofcom said the new BBC channel ‘will deliver public value for the audience’ and ‘make a valuable contribution to the BBC’s public purposes’ as well as broadening the news options available to Scots. It also found that the proposal is ‘unlikely to have a substantial effect on competition’.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Glasgow will be home to a ‘creative hub’ being set up by Channel 4.
The city was named, along with Bristol, as a base for one of two centres, while Leeds will house its new national HQ. The move will bring 50 jobs to Glasgow.