BBC: The Nine's demise was always inevitable

In February 2019, I predicted The Nine – the new BBC Scotland channel’s flagship news programme – wouldn’t last three years. It lasted five.

But its demise – announced earlier this week – was inevitable.

BBC London managers kyboshed the channel from the start by forcing staff to embark on a broadcasting Mission Impossible – attracting viewers for a news programme at 9pm when rivals schedule their most attractive entertainment and drama offerings. If The Nine (which has swallowed half the channel’s budget) couldn’t establish an audience quickly, the whole channel would be tarred with failure and niche status. That’s precisely what’s happened.

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The quest to attract younger viewers has also failed – it seems the average audience for The Nine is older than for Reporting Scotland. No wonder. The channel confusingly named BBC One Scotland can be found under “Categories” on iPlayer while the new Scotland channel is under Channels.

Go figure.

Meanwhile British “network” news continues to pump out its skewed, problematic version of “national” news, with direct relevance only for English viewers.

And that’s not just the view of “raving nationalists”.

It’s important to remember that in June 2016, after the indyref, the Future for Public Service Television Inquiry, led by a Labour peer, backed the idea of a Scottish Six – replacing both Reporting Scotland and the Six O’Clock News from London with a single integrated programme of local, national and international news presented by Scots and ending the whole awkward business of a nation’s news becoming a “regional” add on.

No-one has encapsulated the hopelessly patronising, parochial and enduring status quo better than writer and poet James Robertson, whose rendition of The News Where You Are at the Break Up of Britain conference in November prompted a standing ovation.

The poem starts with the maddening offhand homily still trotted out every night by BBC network presenters:

That’s all from us. Now it’s time for the news where you are.

The news where you are comes after the news where we are.

The news where we are is the news. It comes first.

The news where you are … is the news where you are. It comes after.

We do not have the news where you are.

The news where you are may be news to you, but it’s not news to us.

And the poem continues in a similar hilarious, acutely observed and bittersweet vein.

The reality however is not remotely funny. And hasn’t been for a very long time.

That’s why a Scottish Six was also backed in late 2016 (after the Brexit vote shone a further dazzling clear light on political and cultural cross-border differences) by the Conservative-led Commons culture, media and sport committee.

Its acting chair, Tory MP Damian Collins, said: “The Six O’Clock News in Scotland is currently split into two. The main news stories … are presented from London while Scottish news is presented from Glasgow.

“In the post-devolution era, this can lead to network news programmes transmitted from London leading on several purely English stories – for instance on health, justice or education.

“We believe that it is perfectly reasonable for editorial decisions on the running order for television news broadcasts in Scotland to be made in Scotland, and broadcast from Scotland, as they are already for radio.”

Yip, a Tory.

Even Unionist MPs were able to connect the record dissatisfaction rates among BBC viewers in Scotland (far higher than any other part of the UK) with the existing news offering on BBC1 between 6pm and 7pm. That’s why pilot programmes for a Scottish Six were conducted in secret at Pacific Quay – and all seemed well until the surprise announcement by director general Tony Hall in February 2019 which finally knocked the Scottish Six on the head and entrenched the dysfunctional status quo as sacrosanct.

Actually, many commentators and some BBC staff wanted Aunty to go further and turn BBC One into an entirely Scottish channel which would edit, commission and shape a whole schedule, choosing occasionally to opt IN to network programmes rather than have very occasional opt outs.

So, the Scottish Six was always a bare minimum. Yet even that wasn’t possible. Some optimists hope the vacated 9pm news slot can now become an entertainment slot as it always should have been. Few expect 7pm to be propitious for a new half hour news since the programme would be up against the usually excellent Channel Four News.

And the idea a half-hour podcast, hosted on BBC platforms like Sounds (cos Aunty eschews Apple, Spotify, Google) will reach the young ‘uns is debatable. Having co-presented a weekly podcast for almost 16 years (most of them without any resources), I kinda wonder what took the BBC so long.

As it is they’re running into a very saturated marketplace and one where non-institutional voices are more popular with listeners than regular broadcasters with their top buttons undone. Young folk are getting their news from Youtube – and just by the by, 60-70% of those Scottish under 30 year-olds are Yessers. Which brings us to the elephant in the room – content.

We can argue about how robust interviews with SNP figures should be. Personally – I expect robust exchanges with all politicians. But do presenters on BBC Scotland/the Scotland Channel/Radio Scotland sound like they live, breathe and share the outlook of Scots?

Take the Gaza vote debacle last night. Around 5pm there was a good, vigorous Radio Scotland interview between Ian Murray, Stephen Flynn and Martin Geissler which teased out the shameful fact Labour wouldn’t back the SNP’s motion despite Flynn pledging to back Labour’s amendment. The tone taken by Murray was brusque, huffy, combative and very wrong.

But I also wanted to hear a flavour of Scottish public opinion on this massively important issue. There’ve been pro-Palestine demonstrations all over Scotland for months. Even in tiny Ullapool – they’ve been out every weekend for months. Have Glasgow-based BBC presenters missed the fact that Humza Yousaf’s bold, unequivocal stance is backed by the vast majority of Scots? Or are folk agitating on the streets just the wrong leaves on the line? Again. Reflecting nation onto nation – the BBC’s mission – means reflecting public opinion – not just politicians.

Worse. As the SNP walked out of the Commons last night, Reporting Scotland didn’t carry any footage. That was inexcusably limp. Channel 4 News spent half the programme analysing what had happened. Would anyone choose to watch a 7pm Scotland news instead?

These are the deep problems that will not be remedied by shuffling the time slot of The Nine. According to one former BBC Scotland presenter: “It was a completely misbegotten idea to begin with – a news programme pitched at young people, who don’t watch linear TV to get their news. Some people in Pacific Quay think it was set up to fail, which it certainly has, in order to show there was no audience for a Scottish Six. It ate up young, talented, creative people who were told they’d be able to experiment. Instead they became rota fodder.

“What happens next will be the usual short-changing of Scotland: five hours a week of news will become two and a half. Another sop is the promise of occasionally longer editions of Reporting Scotland, although the audience figures would suggest that people have already had enough of that tired old warhorse.

“The story of the BBC in Scotland in the last 25 years has been one of sops, starting with Newsnight Scotland. The BBC Scotland channel was set up after audience research told the Beeb just how badly they’d handled the indyref. It didn’t address the fundamental issue – that the BBC just doesn’t get Scotland and never will.”

Amen.