Instead of a new channel, Auntie’ s millions should be spent doing less better
Being on the road a lot, I don’t get the chance to watch much television, so I have to confess that I haven’t switched on to anything on the new BBC Scotland channel.
The viewing figures I saw reported last week seem low, with some shows apparently recording no audience at all.
The BBC says the figures aren’t as bad as that in reality as they are measured on the viewing habits of a select number of households, not the whole country. However, you have to think the Beeb would like them to be higher.
There is so much competition for viewers nowadays, with the huge number of channels and online platforms, that you do have to wonder if launching a Scotland-only service wasn’t pouring more programming into an already saturated market.
It feels as though, unless you have something really big or groundbreaking to offer, you are just wasting time (and, in the BBC’S case, public money). That’s not to say there shouldn’t be more Scottish content.
When I was driving to the airport the other day, listening to the radio, I was sad that the local shows and voices on some of my favourite stations have been replaced with Uk-wide versions. It’s definitely a loss, but it’s just the way of the world now in that the level of competition means it’s getting harder to make a viable business out of traditional broadcasting.
Of course, it takes a while for any new venture to thrive, but in order to give the new channel a chance there would have had to have been a very significant marketing and advertising push to get it in front of people.
If I’m anything to go by, that’s not happening because it hasn’t really crossed my radar.
We get set in our viewing and listening comfort zones and, to get us to break away from that, producers need to be offering something extra special or radically different. Producing more of the same, but with a Scottish flavour, just isn’t enough.
You can’t help but wonder if it wouldn’t have been better to prioritise quality over quantity.
Rather than a dedicated channel, all the millions could have gone into creating best-inclass programming where we invest in the film and broadcast industry more widely in Scotland and produce output that can punch above its weight in the global marketplace.
Less is very often more.