Nicola Sturgeon’s ambitious proposals for new BBC TV and radio channels in Scotland are based heavily on an official BBC blueprint that was scrapped after the latest £750m funding cuts, the Guardian can reveal. Sources close to the BBC have confirmed that its executives drew up plans for a new Scotland-only TV channel and an extra radio service funded by the licence fee, as part of the corporation’s proposals for the renewal of its charter.

The proposals, which the BBC forecast would cost about £75m, were leaked to the first minister’s team by BBC staff because they were hastily shelved by the broadcaster in July. That came after Tony Hall, its director general, was forced by the UK government to accept £750m in cuts under the latest licence fee settlement negotiated behind closed doors with George Osborne.

Sources now say that the BBC’s ambitions have been severely cut back to focus on a new Scotland editor for BBC News and far less expensive plans to expand drama and documentary commissioning.

They claim only about £30m-£35m is spent by the BBC on Scottish news, sports and programme-making, compared with a licence fee income of £320m from Scotland – a figure disputed by BBC officials. The BBC says its overall spending in Scotland varies from £180m to £200m a year.

BBC Scotland executives in Glasgow are understood to have presented Hall with a suite of options, including a new TV channel solely for Scotland or new online-only Scottish programming. They also proposed a second BBC Radio Scotland service based on splitting its FM and AM services into two separate ones. BBC Radio Scotland normally broadcasts the same programmes on AM and FM, using FM when it covers big football matches.

Sturgeon revealed at the Edinburgh international TV festival on Thursday that these plans were now the centrepiece of her government’s proposals to the UK government for future reform of the BBC.

Sources close to Sturgeon said her government had been working on similar proposals independently of the BBC: the two sides had arrived at this new model separately.

She will be backed internally by some BBC executives, corporation sources have said, because they believe that demanding these measures could be crucial in ensuring that Scottish programming is protected from the deeper cuts now being planned corporation-wide.

Sturgeon said the UK government had enforced its cuts of BBC funding in secret, which amounted to “a serious breach” of its undertaking to consult devolved governments such as hers about the future of the BBC. She claimed that only decentralisation would allow the BBC to recover the trust of its Scottish audience, particularly among voters who backed independence at the Scottish referendum and felt “frustration” and a “genuine concern” about BBC reporting.

That distrust erupted again after Alex Salmond, her predecessor as first minister, and Nick Robinson, the BBC’s outgoing political editor, renewed their public feud over Robinson’s mishandling of an exchange with Salmond before the referendum.



Sturgeon told her lecture audience in Edinburgh that she did not want to sound like a politician moaning about coverage she did not like. She did not dispute the integrity of much of the corporation’s journalism. But she claimed that much of the BBC’s coverage of the referendum was too quick to focus on the negatives; failing to challenge errors in the pro-UK camps claims.



Openly distancing herself from Salmond’s complaints, she insisted: “So let me be clear. I am not saying there was institutional bias in the BBC’s referendum output. However, there were occasions when its coverage – through oversight, apparent ignorance of the detail of an issue or as a result of simply following the agenda of openly partisan print media – lapsed from the objective output the referendum deserved into what could seem partial and, at times, pejorative.”



Sturgeon began her lecture by attacking broadcaster in blunt terms for allowing their broadcasting, management and staff to be heavily male dominated, overlooking or sidelining female sporting events. “Women in sport receive far less coverage and prominence than their male counterparts. Older female reporters have had to battle to stay on screen while their male equivalents hold premium presenting roles well past retirement age,” she said.



“None of that is acceptable in 2015. Young girls and women are entitled – just as much as men and boys are – to see positive, or rather fair, representations of themselves on screen.”



After Sturgeon’s speech the BBC said it was planning to “protect” its spending in the nations and increase its Scottish spending and output as part of its charter renewal programme, admitting that Sturgeon had correctly identified issues about its output.

Adding that BBC audiences in Scotland got “great value” from the licence fee, a spokeswoman added: “We recognise that there is audience demand for greater representation and portrayal of Scottish audiences on all BBC services and we want this to be part of our response in charter review.



“The BBC’s funding has now been set for the next five years and this will mean cuts across the BBC – we will have to balance our investment on pan-UK services with dedicated services in the nations. We will aim to protect spending in the Nations so that content investment is cut less than in other parts of the BBC.”

