THE flagship nine o’clock news programme on the new BBC Scotland channel will be able to draw on the broadcaster’s global resources, according to the corporation’s director general.

Tony Hall told MSPs that plans for the hour-long mix of Scottish, UK and international news “could teach a few lessons to news broadcasters around the world”.

He was appearing before Holyrood’s Culture Committee alongside BBC Scotland controller Donalda MacKinnon and the BBC’s director of nations and regions Ken MacQuarrie, who was previously in charge at BBC Scotland.

The bulletin will be a key part of the schedule of the new channel, which will have an annual budget of £30 million and is due to start broadcasting in autumn next year.

As part of the plans, which on Wednesday were given to staff at their Pacific Quay HQ in Glasgow, 80 new journalists will be hired.

The BBC has been under years of pressure to establish a “Scottish Six” bulletin replacing the UK-wide 6pm news and Reporting Scotland, which airs immediately afterwards. Wednesday’s surprise announcement of the new channel effectively killed off hopes of a Scottish Six.

Hall told MSPs that putting the new flagship bulletin out at 9pm, when there are no other news programmes broadcast, would allow producers in Scotland to draw on the BBC’s global resources.

He said: “I think the BBC is a team and I very much want Donalda to draw on the resources of the whole BBC, behind BBC Scotland the channel and all the things we do. I know that we can put the entire resources, journalist resources – global as well as UK – behind a news at nine o’clock for an hour.

“Talking to the teams yesterday, I think they can do something which is really new and fresh, using all the resources of the BBC, which I think could teach a few lessons to news broadcasters around the world. I’m really excited by that proposition.”

He added that the BBC will increase its spending on news in Scotland to more than £7 million a year.

“That’s going to benefit not just the new nine o’clock news but also Reporting Scotland, BBC Alba and Radio nan Gaidheal,” said Hall.

The director general hailed the plans for the new channel, which will broadcast from 7pm till midnight every day, as being the “foundations for an ambitious future”.

“Yesterday was a declaration of intent, to increase our support for the Scottish creative economy,” he said. “When others are cutting back, we’re investing, as we should be.”

The flagship bulletin could also be an opportunity to “reinvent the way we see broadcast news”, according to Hall.

“This programme will have access to John Sopel [North America editor] or whatever they want to do. We’ve got an enormous news-gathering operation around the world. I would love to see more of it on the air.”

Committee convener Joan McAlpine questioned the amount of resources being put behind the new BBC Scotland, telling the BBC chiefs: “You spent £60m, for example, commissioning Match of the Day rights, so £30m, it doesn’t go that far.”

She went on to state that only 55 per cent of licence-fee cash raised in Scotland is spent here and, while this will rise, it was “still a long way behind Northern Ireland at 75 per cent and Wales at 95 per cent”.

“Are we going to get to a position where Scotland has parity with those other nations in the UK?” she asked.

Hall conceded 2015-16 was “not a good year” for the proportion of licence-fee money spent in Scotland, but said that would increase to 68 per cent with the new channel.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Greens welcomed Hall’s reassurance that it is essential for commissioning editors for Scotland to be based in Scotland. It came in response to Green MSP Ross Greer highlighting that the position of acting drama commissioning editor, Scotland, based in Glasgow, appears to be set for replacement by a commissioner position based in London.

Independent production companies in Scotland have raised concerns repeatedly that such arrangements contribute towards their losing out on contracts in Scotland to southern-based companies more familiar with BBC management.

Greer, the Greens’ culture and media spokesperson, said: “I welcome the reassurance given by Tony Hall and the BBC and I will write to BBC bosses to clarify that there will be Scotland-based commissioning editors... This is an exciting time for broadcasting in Scotland and it’s important that the BBC gets this right.”