HERE IS THE NEWS ...WE’VE ONLY GOT 2,300 VIEWERS!
THE flagship news and current affairs programme for BBC Scotland’s digital channel is attracting as few as 2,300 viewers.
New figures show the monthly average for The Nine fell to a low of around 15,000 in the past year – and reached a high of only 25,000.
The digital channel was launched in 2019 with a £32million budget.
Earlier this week, the Mail revealed that just 400 had tuned into The Seven, the weekend equivalent of The Nine, on Saturday.
Last night Scottish Tory culture spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘It is getting harder and harder to justify why so much licence fee payers’ money is getting spent to gain such a small audience.’
The new figures, from ratings provider overnights.tv, show there were 44 days in the past year when viewers fell below 10,000.
On January 29, just 2,300 watched the show, which is presented by Martin Geissler and Rebecca Curran. The highest figure was 55,900, on August 5 this year.
Media commentator and former BBC journalist Professor Tim Luckhurst said: ‘As a committed supporter of the BBC, it pains me to see the corporation wasting valuable money on a service for which there is no demand.
‘It should be closed, and the money spent on BBC journalism that attracts audiences.’
The show is attracting a far smaller audience than STV rival Scotland Tonight, which pulls in an average of 130,000.
A BBC Scotland spokesman said: ‘The Nine is performing well, with an average audience of 20,000 and a weekly reach of 160,000.
‘The programme receives positive feedback for its reporting style and for the stories it covers.’
‘Harder and harder to justify’