The following extract was taken from The Telegraph published 22nd February 2017.
What the CEP would like to know is – when are we going to get a BBC England?
Do not hold your breaths, the BBC are not known for their pro-English stance on anything.
BBC to launch new TV channel for Scotland with £30m budget
The BBC is to create a new channel, named BBC Scotland, as part of a plan which will see the “biggest single investment” in the corporation north of the border for more than 20 years.
It rejected calls for a so-called “Scottish Six”, but the channel will include an hour-long news programme, combining Scottish, UK and international news, at 9pm every weekday.
Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC’s director-general, said it would begin broadcasting in the autumn of 2018 and would have a budget of £30 million, similar to the amount spent on BBC4.
The news programme will be edited and presented in Scotland, will lead to 80 new journalist posts, and the channel is due to broadcast from 7pm to midnight. It will also be available on iPlayer in HD in Scotland and across the UK.
However, questions may be asked over the level of funding, with previous calls for a new channel suggesting a budget of £100 million was necessary.
The director general also used a visit to Glasgow to announce an increase of about £20m a year for Scotland to make UK-wide programmes, focused on drama and factual programming.
He said Scotland should receive about £40m in new funding annually – £19m for the new channel and digital developments, and £20m for making network programmes. The corporation anticipates that spending on network programmes made in Scotland for a UK-wide BBC audience will rise from about £65m this year to closer to £90m over the next three years.
Lord Hall told staff: “All of this combined amounts to the biggest single investment by the BBC in broadcast content in Scotland in over 20 years.
“This will be a huge boost for BBC Scotland and for the Scottish creative industries. This is an exciting time for BBC Scotland and for the millions of Scots who love TV.”
He added: “I said at the beginning of the year that the BBC needed to be more creative and distinctive. The BBC is Britain’s broadcaster but we also need to do more for each nation just as we are doing more for Britain globally.
Small point but Its spelled “Licence” and not “License”
Can you show your workings on how “English TV Licence” fees actually will fund the new BBC Scotland channel? I might be wrong but I think even with the new TV Channel Scotland will retain only about 60% of what is raised through Licence fees in Scotland (Wales 95%), or are you perhaps including sales of BBC output as belonging to England only?
However I agree totally with your point regarding the BBC. There is little point in Lord Hall saying “The BBC is Britain’s broadcaster but we also need to do more for each nation just as we are doing more for Britain globally” and then leave out England as a nation in its own right.