Nicola Sturgeon wants a separate Scottish television channel and a second Scottish radio station. But what evidence does she have that a Scottish audience shares her views? It may well be that 48 per cent — as one survey suggested — want something better. But no one has yet explained what that something is, nor how it is to be paid for.
It is one thing to claim that Scottish life and culture are not properly represented by the BBC, but quite another to explain how simply adding more airtime fills the gap.
Manfully, for 20 minutes or so yesterday morning, Gary Robertson, the BBC Scotland presenter, tried to elicit from Fiona Hyslop, the culture secretary, what kind of TV channel she thought Scotland should have, and what exactly a second English-language radio station would provide.
She shelved any discussion of detail in favour of “a better way of reflecting Scottish culture and presenting Scotland to the outside world”. Our broadcasting, she said, needed more ambition.
Over the past 25 years, the standard of BBC output in Scotland has dropped. Radio Scotland has been content to provide chat, football, music and comedy. Serious programmes have been sidelined, documentaries, drama and current affairs are in short supply. For any decent Scottish writing, one has to turn to Radio 4.
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TV has produced River City and the occasional drama and documentary, but is short of high-quality Scottish output. Only recently did it give any proper coverage to the Edinburgh Festival. Those in Pacific Quay, the BBC’s headquarters in Scotland, argue that they have been starved of resources. Executives in London say there have simply not been enough ideas coming south to justify the extra investment.
Either way, it is hard to see how Ms Sturgeon’s proposals will produce programmes of the standard that a Scottish audience, exposed to a greater output from around the world, is going to want to watch or listen to.
If the SNP government wants to win a Scottish audience round to the brave new world of a high-quality “federal” BBC, they will need first to be told how it is to be paid for, and whether there is still the ambition and talent within BBC Scotland to produce it.