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IT HAS been a tough few years for the BBC – with challenges from every direction and

potshots and criticism from every quarter.

Last week, Tony Hall, BBC’s head, gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament with BBC Scotland boss Ken MacQuarrie.

Hall set out the BBC stall. Despite cuts, a range of digital possibilities and platforms were unveiled centred on the iPlayer. MacQuarrie answered questions on BBC Scotland’s leaked plan for a new Scottish channel which he said “was never a plan” but a set of brainstorming meetings and emails.

The BBC are a convenient scapegoat. Regularly shot at by right-wing opinion-makers, they have long infuriated the left and didn’t have a good independence referendum, alienating a whole swathe of Scotland.

They face a Tory Government conducting a slow war of attrition against them. The BBC have played this appallingly, retreating under the fire of Tory attacks, first on the funding of the World Service and recently on the cost of over-75s TV licences.

Leadership in Scotland can also be questioned. Who it is accountable to is a huge weakness – namely London, not Scotland.

The Scottish public are discontented with the BBC – in England, 61 per cent are satisfied with the BBC; in Scotland, 48 per cent.

There is a financial gap as well – the BBC raise £323million in licence fees from Scotland but only spend £35million on TV made here for Scottish audiences. Radio, digital and UK programmes made in Scotland can be added to increase this but it still leaves a huge gap.

The Scottish Government haven’t been as imaginative as they could. A Broadcasting Commission came, reported and was parked. Nicola Sturgeon’s MacTaggart Lecture last year said all the right things but hasn’t been followed up.

Critically, there is no fresh thinking coming from the Scottish Government and Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop seems to aspire to a Scottish version of the status quo.

Hall has indicated that a Scottish Six is again under consideration – an integrated news of Scottish, UK and world coverage. This nearly happened 20 years ago and was stopped by Tony Blair’s and then BBC head John Birt’s efforts. It could have worked then – it is completely inadequate now. Similarly, Hyslop’s thinking isn’t ambitious enough.

There is a time lag in Scottish Government thinking. It doesn’t acknowledge the pressures on public service broadcasting which will accelerate in future and the revolution already happening in how people consume, produce and see media.

What we have seen so far is a typical Scottish conservative conversation, with institutional players trying to control the market and take people for granted. It is insular and old-fashioned and barely adequate for the media of the future.

We have to start talking about programming, audiences and wider international reach. How do we make Scottish programmes which tell our unique stories? How do we sell our programmes to global networks? How do we challenge the predictable diet of Scottish cliches and caricatures?

This is about more than news, current affairs and politics. It is about how Scotland represents itself back to itself, has creative conversations and projects itself to the world.

The BBC in London tend to see Scotland as a marginal issue to be bought off by a Scottish Six.

They don’t see the Britain they present as problematic to most people here: an increasingly out-of-touch, patronising, London-centric service treating the rest of the UK as an afterthought.

Accountability and power matter. BBC Scotland have, for all their existence, been accountable to the interests of London. That distorts everything – resources, energy, time and leadership.

They need to become accountable to Scotland, not politicians but its people. That requires a culture and structure which takes us away from micro-issues such as the news order of Reporting Scotland and to these bigger issues.

That requires a debate which moves beyond the present limited menu. It requires a bold vision from the Scottish Government and an agenda which is about more than producers.

It needs the BBC, in London and Scotland, to seize the democratic agenda, embracing the revolution that is coming – of choice, content and plurality.

Change is upon us – and the BBC north of the border can either be part of it or Scots will do it themselves.