Bravehearts

Who'd a thought it ?  Scots putting on a brave face. The BBC Scotland one-hour news programme at Nine each weekday, defended as doing a valuable job for five years, is being axed. One suspects the decision was taken some time ago - lead presenter Martin Geissler was smuggled out to Radio Scotland over a year ago. Certainly one can re-read the testimony of Scotland boss Steve Carson to Scottish MSPs last month as equivocal support. Subject to Ofcom's approval, The Nine is to be replaced by a 30-minute news programme at 1900 on the same channel.

But this looks like frying pan to fire, and one wonders where the brains of Muriel Gray, Welsh woman Elan Closs Stephens and Welshman Rhodri Talfan Davies were, when discussing this move with Irishman Mr Carson on the Board's Scotland committee (minutes not available).   

First, the BBC Scotland Friday schedules already open at 7pm with a Scotland bulletin, The Seven, which at half-an-hour, reaches only 8,000 a week. It's up against Channel 4 News, The One Show and the extended ITV national news. 

Yesterday BBC Scotland news boss Gary Smith admitted to Martin Geissler on Drivetime that the BBC's Reporting Scotland, at 6.30pm, had a declining audience, when STV's News at Six is hitting averages of 340,000 a night - a third of available viewers. Why would they bother with another dose of news at 7pm ?

Gary acknowledges that the move is a reduction in 'news hours' but wants Ofcom to consider a four-times a week podcast as compensation. STV should move fast and copyright Scotcast. Citing the Geissler commitment to afternoon radio as a bonus sits odd with the views of Rhodri Talfan Davies, who's abandoned the bulk of local programming on BBC local radio at that time of day. There is also the suggestion that Reporting Scotland will biff The One Show on yet-to-be-names occasions. 

No jobs are to go. Did the Board interrogate this ?  Will there be a separate studio, team, and indeed, presenters for the 7pm half-hour ? Why not hot-desk in the weather at the end of Reporting Scotland and save some real money to put into good stuff on BBC Scotland at 9pm ? A bit more football and Dolly Parton, eh, Steve ?