Concerns were voiced about bias during independence referendum – and Scots’ view of corporation has barely improved since

The Scottish public’s opinion of the BBC’s TV news coverage has barely improved since the country’s independence referendum, according to research by the corporation’s governing body.

The overall approval rating for BBC news in Scotland was at 7.2 out of 10 at the end of 2015, down from 7.4 at the beginning of autumn and only slightly up on a low of 7.0 in the immediate aftermath of the 2014 referendum.

The figures are part of a wide-ranging report by the BBC Trust, which said that the corporation’s output for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland shopuld be a “top priority” for the BBC board which will be created under the BBC’s next charter in 2017.



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However, while the report said that overall perceptions of BBC news, current affairs and radio were positive across the regions, the corporation was not perceived as well in Scotland.

The trust said: “Audience expectations of BBC news are extremely high and while they mostly rate its programming highly, occasionally it falls short of expectations.

“This was particularly apparent in Scotland where significant performance gaps emerged between aspects of news programming audiences considered important and how they rated the BBC’s actual performance.”

The concerns were predominantly about how much Scottish news was covered, and impartiality.

During the referendum BBC was repeatedly accused of bias, with those in favour of independence targeting specific journalists including then BBC politics editor Nick Robinson.

The approval ratings in Scotland contrast with those for the UK as a whole, where the BBC has had a relatively steady score around 8 for the last three years.

Opinions of BBC news have been diverging north and south of the border since the first half of 2013, when Scotland ranked the corporation’s coverage at 7.9, only slightly down from the country as a whole at 8. However, it took a steep turn downwards in the period around the referendum.

The trust’s report said that although satisfaction with Scotland’s BBC news output was generally high, concerns over impartiality were having an impact.

The report said: “While our quantitative research showed very high levels of satisfaction with the quality and trustworthiness of BBC news, responses to our consultation show that audience perceptions of impartiality clearly affect their perception of quality.

“In the consultation, many concerns around BBC impartiality and fairness of its reporting were voiced. But there is clearly no consensus: criticisms were made that the BBC was pro-nationalist and pro-unionist. Some respondents praise the BBC for maintaining impartiality across its television output.”

The BBC is planning to trial a long-discussed Scottish Six programme, expected to be made in Scotland, weaving together both national news and BBC content from around the UK.

The trust added: “The debate over whether the BBC has the right balance of network and nations news on BBC1 in Scotland has become very high profile with a range of strong views amongst the public and within the press.”

“The BBC is actively considering how it should serve audiences in Scotland and the other devolved nations with its news and whether any changes in output are needed to achieve a service that meets audience expectations. The trust awaits the outcome of this work later this year.”

A BBC Scotland spokesman said: “We’re heartened to hear our audiences rate our services highly and that in TV news for example 8 out of 10 agree it is informative and 7 out of 10 say it is high quality and relevant to them.

“We recognise, however, that audience expectations of BBC news are extremely high and there are also some areas of concern such as the balance of news from Scotland and England. We outlined some months ago that the BBC is actively considering how it should best serve audiences in Scotland in news and whether we need to make any changes to our existing output.”