Breadth of existing service destroys case for a new BBC Scotland TV channel
Your correspondent Francis Buchan (“BBC fails Scots”, Letters, 12 February) claims “the truth is that the BBC has failed in its service to Scotland”.
In this case the so-called truth is simply one individual’s perception of the BBC, and I would suggest it is a somewhat biased perception at that.
I believe many of us are of the view that the BBC does an excellent job in and for Scot- land. There is a wide range of home-produced material, including news and many other topics, across BBC TV, radio and websites, which address the issues that affect us here in Scotland, as well as providing content and input for other parts of the UK. Furthermore, many of us anyway wish to look beyond Scotland’s borders and are happy to receive programmes and information from London and elsewhere, about the UK as a whole, and covering international issues too.
Thus my perception is that the BBC strives to provide a good and balanced range of content and we have no need for a new BBC Scotland channel, thank you.
GORDON SHEPHERD
Douglas Terrace Broughty Ferry, Dundee The BBC, when established, was certainly looked up to as an independent source of news and as such was a national “asset” and a valuable tool for independent living. As such, it should certainly be free of licence charge for any pensioner who has insufficient resources to pay.
However, the BBC is no longer such a broadcasting service as it is questionable in its political independence and seeks to be a rival to other broadcasters.
It seeks to make popular programmes rather than fill the “unpopular” basics. It talks about paying excessive high salaries to attract the best rather than what is required. It is a long way from the basic service that Lord Reith established.
It should choose between raising its own money through sponsorship and advertising (a fact of the modern world) or cut its cloth by simply providing weather reports from the studio rather than expensive outside crews all over the place; and providing a simple ‘service’.
JAMES WATSON Randolph Crescent
Dunbar East Lothian