NICOLA Sturgeon’s government has accused the BBC of “short-changing” Scotland after it revealed it is spending just over half the income it raises from Scottish viewers on programmes in the country.
The corporation’s annual report, published last week, reveals 51% of the funding raised in Scotland is spent in Scotland in 2021, compared to 71% in Northern Ireland and 64% in Wales. According to the report the percentage was 69% for Scotland in 2020.
The corporation pledged greater spending north of the Border with a new BBC Scotland channel launched in 2019 designed to help improve the service.
However, concern over funding levels have continued with Culture Secretary Angus Robertson (below) bringing up the matter with the BBC’s director general Tim Davie last month.
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The meeting followed a separate controversy over plans by a subsidiary of the corporation in London to take over the running of two BBC Scotland studios in Glasgow. Davie dropped the proposals following opposition from the trade union Bectu and an outcry from politicians in the SNP, Greens and Alba.
A Scottish Government spokesperson hit out last night at the latest spending percentages.
“These figures are clearly concerning. They show that Scottish licence fee payers are being short-changed, and the BBC needs to urgently take action to remedy this,” he said.
“The BBC has historically spent a lower proportion of Scottish licence fee revenue here in Scotland compared to the share received by other UK nations and the BBC’s annual report highlights the need for more to be done to increase spend to a level that is fair and drives the growth of our creative economy.”
He added: “Culture Secretary Angus Robertson recently met with the BBC’s director general to seek assurances the BBC would fulfil their commitment for greater spend and network commissioning here in Scotland and we fully expect to see an immediate and significant increase in the coming year.”
The percentages are based on figures in the BBC’s latest annual report for estimated annual income in 2021 and estimated network and local spending. The figures include direct and indirect spend relating to programmes produced in each nation.
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During 2021, the estimated income for the BBC raised from licence fee payers is £309m. The total network spend is given as £50m in 2021 with total local spend stated as 108 million, meaning the total output spend comes to £158m or 51% of the income. Total spending was £202m in 2020.
Taking account of funding by the BBC for the BBC orchestra and the money spent on “development and distribution” the proportion is higher in 2021, reaching 67%. (In 2020 it reached 85%).
However, when these other aspects are included in the calculations for Wales and Northern, the two other devolved nations had higher proportions of spending than Scotland, with the former receiving an estimated 90% and the latter 83% in 2021.
It is understood the network spending figures do not include the BBC nature series Autumnwatch despite filming taking place in Scotland.
Sources point out BBC Wales were able to transmit the network hit His Dark Materials as filming had taken place before the pandemic, while the popular crime drama Shetland had to be postponed as a result of the Covid crisis.
Paul McManus, negotiating officer for Bectu in Scotland, said the figures were “a real concern”.
“I don’t know if that is the fact that Wales and Northern Ireland have fought their corner better or whether there has been a deliberate policy of putting more money into Wales and Northern Ireland rather than Scotland,” he said.
“There is a real concern among our members that BBC Scotland in recent years has not been fighting its corner hard enough to get more programmes.”
He said there had been concerns over the funding level for the new BBC Scotland channel (£34m in 2021) with some producers reluctant to supply the channel.
“Some bigger independents won’t take on work as the budget is not sufficient and leading to a reliance on small producers,” he said.
Kenny MacAskill, the Alba Party MP , said: “We cannot as a country continue to beg for the crumbs from the masters’ table. We have to assert our rights as a broadcasting nation and demand that control of the BBC in Scotland is transferred to a BBC Scotland Board accountable to the Scottish Parliament. We need funding and programming decisions made in Scotland so that we can have high quality news, drama, comedy and documentaries made in Scotland for viewers and listeners at home and for export to other English language channels.”
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A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC’s ability to film and transmit productions was very badly affected by Covid last year when we were forced to stop location and studio filming and this accounts for a large drop in network business.”
He added: “We have been spending an increasing amount of the licence fee raised in Scotland in recent years before Covid, but viewers in Scotland, like viewers in the other nations, pay towards all of the BBC’s programmes and services – from Blue Planet to Fleabag, for the BBC iPlayer, BBC World Service, for the BBC’s international global newsgathering operation.”
They said with new programmes to be filmed in Scotland spending figures should rise.
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