Meeting of the Parliament 16 June 2011
I agree that the broadcasting opportunities that a Scottish digital network would bring would allow far more of those kinds of events to be covered and to be accessible to the public through their televisions and online.
Only yesterday morning, I watched a report on BBC’s “Breakfast” on proposed increases to the Humber bridge tolls. After saying that, if accepted, they will be among the highest in the UK, the reporter then listed toll charges throughout England and on the Severn bridge, which links Wales with England. During this breakdown of what were described as “UK figures”, no one mentioned that tolls in Scotland had been scrapped by an SNP Government, or presented that model or the buyout of bridge contracts as an alternative perspective. It is inconceivable that a Scottish public sector broadcaster would have failed to establish the Scottish context of that report and I believe that on that occasion the BBC let down every viewer in the UK.
A consistent finding of the research that was commissioned by the Scottish Broadcasting Commission in 2008 and the Scottish Government in 2009 is that Scottish viewers want more choice; indeed, since 2008, there has been consensus in the Parliament on the need to establish a Scottish digital network. The results of that research will come as no surprise when we look at the figures. Although in 2008-09 Scottish licence fee payers accounted for £300 million, of the total only £140 million was spent in Scotland, which demonstrates a substantial shortfall in investment.