BBC’s latest f lagship news show... hosted by an ex-rugby player
Beattie to co-present programme on £32m channel
HE is best known for being Scotland’s marauding number eight, who went on to qualify as a chartered accountant.
But now former rugby international John Beattie has been chosen by BBC bosses to front the flagship news programme on their new Scottish channel.
Beattie, who won 25 caps for Scotland between 1980 and 1987, will front The Nine show every Friday night when the channel goes live in February.
The 60-year-old, who qualified as a civil engineer before taking up rugby professionally, has hosted his own show on BBC Radio Scotland since 2010.
Details of the new show, described as ‘informal and inclusive’, were revealed by the BBC yesterday.
Presenters will host the hour-long item in open-collar shirts from an open-plan studio at Pacific Quay headquarters in Glasgow. Rebecca Curran and Martin will co-host from Monday to Thursday, with Beattie and Laura Miller presenting Friday’s programme.
Geissler said there would be a centre spot for news reading, which he calls the ‘bar area’, along with a big screen and long sofa for interviewees.
Producers said the show will have a ‘stripped back’ look uncluttered with ticker tape and graphics.
The new Scottish 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 go-ahead to launch the £32million-a-year channel following a ‘careful review’ by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom earlier this year.
BBC chiefs say the plans will create 140 jobs over the next three years and a £4million digital design and engineering hub will be set up in Glasgow.
But critics suggest the number of new staff needed will ‘distort’ Scotland’s media industry, making it top-heavy in favour of the broadcaster.
The cost to TV licence payers of the new channel has also been questioned.
Yesterday, The Nine’s editor Hayley Valentine set out the goal of ‘a world-class programme combining international, UK and Scottish news with the needs of a Scottish audience at the heart of everything we do’.
She added: ‘We hope to bring the audience the best of the BBC, both from Scotland and around the globe, plus some exciting new on-screen talent.
‘We want to bring audiences stories that they won’t find anywhere else. We are looking at fresh, creative and engaging ways of telling stories that matter to Scottish audiences.’
In addition to the Monday to Friday shows, there will also be week Geissler end bulletins of The Nine. BBC Scotland’s head of news and current affairs Gary Smith said: ‘The programme will be very different to what we do in Reporting Scotland as we will be covering the world and the UK as well.’
The BBC unveiled its plans for the channel in February last year, sparking fears this would hand the corporation an unfair advantage over other Scottish news outlets. It already has a 32 per cent audience share overall.
But Ofcom ruled it was ‘unlikely to have a substantial effect on competition’. Around half of the daily 7pm to midnight schedule will comprise repeats.
Duncan Simpson, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Licence fee payers spend a significant amount and expect money will be spent on producing high-quality programs.
‘Splashing out over £30million on a new channel for Scotland, when most shows will be either repeats or on other channels anyway, is a bizarre move indeed.’
Glasgow will also be home to a creative hub being set up by Channel 4, in a move creating 50 jobs.
‘We want stories you won’t find elsewhere’