(Image: PA)
Finally, it is official: the BBC Scotland channel is on the way out. Given how long it has taken BBC management to make the announcement, I half fancied the news was travelling by stagecoach.
Never one to let an opportunity to bury bad news pass them by, managers announced the closure of BBC Scotland at the same time as the end of BBC Three, as if the two were of equal stature. They are not. One is the home of RuPaul’s Drag Race (also axed) and The Young Offenders sitcom. The other was what was left of a Scottish Six after it crashed and burned.
Ah, the Scottish Six, remember it? A whole hour of national and international news made in Scotland but looking out into the wider world. But some deemed it too political, another step on a slippery slope towards independence. Most of us, however, just fancied a news bulletin that didn’t carry 10 minutes on A Level results in England.
But what does it matter if BBC Scotland no longer lives at number nine on the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG)? Everything is going to the iPlayer. So instead of watching repeats on BBC Scotland, you will do so on the iPlayer. Good luck finding the Scotland channel.
Don't have internet access? Not keen on a change to your routine? Too bad. Get with the programme, or rather don't.
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As for new shows, forget it. Why bother when there is so much stuff on the iPlayer already? All those independent production companies based in Scotland will have to look a lot harder for work.
No surprise that Scotcast and Debate Night, fronted by Martin Geissler and Stephen Jardine respectively, look safe while the News at Seven has been axed. That won’t do much for the channel’s headcount of women presenters. BBC Radio Scotland is already looking like Radio Bloke, and now BBC One Scotland is going the same way.
With so many programmes axed recently, it may be hard for the average viewer to summon up much sympathy for yet another casualty of the cuts. Even DIY SOS, the BBC One show that makes the homes of desperate people habitable, is being “rested” for a year. But the loss of the BBC Scotland channel matters.
At the moment, Scotland is the only UK nation with its own standalone television channel with its own schedule, and its own pot of money to commission programmes. That is a big deal. If it goes, so too do the hopes of BBC Wales and Northern Ireland of having the same. More importantly, Scotland’s standing is diminished; its voice becomes quieter, easier to ignore. London, you can be sure, will fill the vacuum that is left.
When he appeared at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August, director general Matt Brittin made much of his travels around Scotland. He was so impressed by everything he saw.
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But from next Spring there will be a lot less of BBC Scotland to admire, and even fewer people rattling around the huge building at Pacific Quay, memorably described by Kirsty Wark as resembling “a call centre where half the staff have been made redundant”. Will it be next on the hit list? Which of your favourite shows could go?
The worst thing about this latest blow to broadcasting in Scotland, besides people losing their jobs, is that no one thinks it will be the last. Over to you, Ofcom.