Sturgeon concerned about TV plan
First Minister questions funding and picture quality at television festival
Nicola Sturgeon has raised concerns that the new BBC Scotland TV channel will be under-funded and lack picture quality.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, the First Minister suggested the channel would need more money than its £30 million budget and criticised the fact that it will be broadcast in standard rather than high definition.
Nicola Sturgeon yesterday raised concerns about the calibre of the new BBC Scotland TV channel claiming it was under-funded and would lack picture quality.
The First Minister suggested the new channel would need more cash than its £30 million budget to produce top quality programmes and was dismayed that it would not be viewed in high definition.
Her criticisms were made during her keynote address at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, where she also called on the Corporation to speed up its efforts to close the gender pay gap and attract more ethnic minorities.
Appearing alongside Kirsty Wark, Ms Sturgeon said the new Scottish channel was a step in the right direction when it came to the BBC serving the devolved nations.
But she added: “The new proposed BBC channel has a budget of £30m and I think there are really legitimate questions about whether that will be sufficient. You think back to the broadcasting commission a decade ago at that time it proposed an annual budget of £75m for a new network in Scotland. The fact that new channel will be broadcast in standard definition could also limit its appeal.
“For drama increasingly these days, viewers expect high definition to be available. At the very least these issues must be kept under review.”
Following the recent disclosures of BBC stars salaries which revealed that men were far better paid than women at the top of the organisation, Ms Sturgeon called for the pledge to close the gap by 2020 to be enacted sooner. She added: “I do think the BBC should accelerate here. The equal pay act passed in the year I was born, which, as you probably know, was not yesterday.”
A BBC spokesman said: “Earlier this year we unveiled plans to make the biggest single investment in broadcast content in Scotland in over 20 years. These include the proposal for the new channel and investment in other digital developments.”
On the question of pay, he added: “We have committed to go further and faster than anyone else and close the gender pay gap by 2020. We’re working hard on this and people should judge us on our progress.”