A little knowledge

Someone needs to put Fiona Hyslop right. The Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs indulges in a point-scoring Sunday Herald piece about getting the BBC to spend more of the £323m million it collects from Scottish licence-payers, in Scotland.

"Prior to last week’s committee, some media suggested we had underestimated the BBC’s spend on new TV content produced in Scotland for Scottish viewers – so I was pleased that the BBC’s Managing Director for Finance and Operations, Anne Bulford, took the opportunity to set the record straight on Tuesday, confirming that there was only a £35 million cash spend on “above the line” original TV content for Scotland."

It might prove hard to spend £35m on tv programme-making in Scotland for Scotland without the investment in BBC buildings, broadcast studios, broadcast facilities and support services in Pacific Quay, Aberdeen, Dumfries, Dundee, Edinburgh, Orkney, Portree, Selkirk, Shetland and Stornoway, And the odd transmitter. And material from BBC digital libraries. And central programme compliance services. But then Fiona knows how broadcasting works....