Scottish Broadcasting Corporation?

The SNP's victory in Scottish Parliament elections in May has now brought to a head a debate that has been rumbling for, well, forever. The issue is the degree of independence public service broadcasting in Scotland should have from UK provision.

The SNP have long disliked the BBC. They say it represents English cultural dominance of the union. Others dispute this, pointing to the many examples of Scottish talent flourishing within the BBC, and arguing that this shining example of harmony on the island is what the SNP really object. (More coverage here.)

The first target for the SNP is news coverage. They want the main news programmes broadcast in Scotland to be Scottish productions (that is, they wouldn't get the main Six O'Clock news on terrestial TV, but rather a 'Scottish Six'). Beyond this, the SNP would like to remove Scotland from the BBC altogether, setting up their own equivalent.

Now, as an Englishman who strongly supports the union, I still find myself entirely comfortable comfortable with talk of Scottish independence. I would advise them against it, and if the English ever proposed breaking up the UK I would vote against it. However, Scotland's future is up to Scotland, and they can do whatever they like.

I think the idea of a main Scottish-produced news bulletin is a perfectly reasonable one. With digital switchover coming, people will have access to news from wherever they want anyway, so those who want a UK focus can get it easily. With more decisions being made in Edinburgh now, it makes sense to have these up front at the top of the bulletin.

But would Scotland be better off with its own public service broadcaster? This is more difficult to back. On the one hand it would guarantee more air time for Scottish talent - with the "SBC" more able to fund and air Scottish productions. Hoever, I question whether this means more Scottish talent finding its way onto Scottish TV. The pull of the much larger BBC is still going to be very strong for Scottish production companies, writers, actors, filmmakers, and so on. Look at the Scottish Premier League in football - completely independent from England, but it is still routine for the best Scottish players to travel south where a bigger stage (and more money) is available.

The viewers are likely to go this way too. Here it will be even worse than it is with football. People will always follow their local football team, so Scottish clubs are guaranteed a captive audience even if their brightest stars leave. The public has no such loyalty to the favourite sitcom for instance. Unless Alex Salmond is going to 'do a China' and block English/British television from being transmitted into Scotland, he will be unable to stop people from tuning in to Eastenders, however much he may want to promote the Scottish alternative.

I don't believe bigger always equals better, but the fact is that Britain remains a distint cultural entity, its population still sharing a single cultural speace (although contested and overlapping with many others). The goal of policy should be to help our creative talent to exploit this cultural space, not creative artificial structures intended to help politicians hive people off into silos.