BBC Scotland is aiming to fend off intense competition from main rival STV by airing a new weekly primetime current affairs programme later this month, amid ongoing delays for its flagship “Scottish Six” plans.
BBC executives have not been able to agree on the case for a major new Scottish Six news programme to replace the Six O’Clock News on BBC1,
The live programme, to be called Timeline, will be shown on BBC2 for half an hour every Thursday evening.
It is claimed it will “go behind the headlines and the political spin”, by giving its viewers “an authentic voice on the stories and issues that matter”.
Timeline will partially replace the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, Scotland 2016, which was axed last year from its four-nights-a-week slot at 10.30pm on BBC2 after its audience figures slumped to only about 30,000 viewers a night.
The programme will be anchored by BBC Scotland’s political correspondent Glenn Campbell and one of the Scottish industry’s few Asian broadcasters, Shereen Nanjiani. A veteran radio and TV presenter, Nanjiani will become BBC Scotland’s only on-air ethnic minority news journalist.
Aired in the same slot as Newsnight in the rest of the UK, Scotland 2016 was unable to compete against STV’s current affairs programme Scotland Tonight, which ran at the same time, and was far more successful in building a loyal audience.
Confirmation that the new programme will be aired will increase scrutiny of the BBC’s wider plans to improve and expand its news and current affairs programming, and to increase spending in Scotland.
With BBC executives still unsure about launching a Scottish Six, STV is now poised to beat the corporation to that too.
STV is expecting to launch its own version of the Scottish Six in February or March, in the form of a nightly half-hourly Scottish, UK and international news programme using ITV’s overseas and London-based output.
Some observers say the BBC will not make a final decision on whether to launch a dedicated hour-long Scottish Six until early summer.
The STV programme will be aired on a second channel the company has been able to create by merging its local city licences in Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow into a single Freeview service called STV2.
The broadcaster has taken on 12 editors, reporters and production staff to boost its newsroom operation.
While many observers believe the new programme will have a small audience, since STV2 is still little known, the commercial broadcaster said its new channel will cover 85% of Scotland’s population, and also be shown on Sky and Virgin cable services.
BBC executives were stung by intense criticism during the 2014 referendum campaign from former first minister Alex Salmond and protesters in the independence movement, who alleged the corporation was biased.
BBC surveys have found Scottish licence fee payers are among the most critical of its general output.
The Scottish National party, which has repeatedly pressed the BBC to increase spending and original output, said it would watch the new show with interest.
In a joint statement, the National Union of Journalists, actors’ union Equity and two independent producers said it was unacceptable that the BBC’s spend in Scotland amounted to only 55% of the £320m raised in Scotland by the licence fee.
“The current imbalance is not in the interests of Scottish audiences, Scottish talent or the BBC,” they said.
• This article was amended on 12 January 2017. An earlier version said Shereen Nanjiani would become BBC Scotland’s only “on-air ethnic minority journalist”. That description would also include the BBC Scotland sports reporter Kheredine Idessane.
