BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotland operates multiple television stations, like the Scottish variant of BBC One, the BBC Scotland channel and the Gaelic-language channel BBC Alba. It also runs radio stations BBC Radio Scotland and Gaelic-language station BBC Radio nan Gàidheal from Stornoway.
It is one of the four BBC national broadcasters, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. Some £320 million of licence fee revenue is raised in Scotland, with expenditure on purely local content set to stand at £86 million by 2016–2017. The remainder of licence fee revenue raised in the country is spent on networked programmes shown throughout the UK, with BBC Scotland producing over 880 hours worth of programming for UK–wide broadcast on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, CBBC and CBeebies. BBC Scotland output reached on average 94% of Scottish audiences in July 2013.
History
Radio services
The first radio service in Scotland was launched by the British Broadcasting Company on 6 March 1923. Named 5SC and located in Bath Street in Glasgow, the services gradually expanded to include the new stations 2BD, 2DE and 2EH, based at Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh respectively. Around 1927, the new Corporation, as the BBC now was, decided to combine these local stations into regions under the generic banner of the BBC Regional Programme. Regional programmes throughout the UK were merged to form the BBC Home Service in 1939, and, with a break for the Second World War, national opt outs remained on the station and its successor BBC Radio 4 until the establishment of a separate BBC Radio Scotland in November 1978.
Television services
Television in Scotland began formally on 14 March 1952 using the 405-line television system broadcast from the Kirk o' Shotts transmitter. In the beginning, all programmes came from London but some with Scottish content were made using an outside broadcast unit. By 1962, there were plans for television news interview studios in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Eventually, BBC Scotland established the right to "opt-out" of the network more and more. When BBC Two arrived in Scotland in 1966 (having begun in London two years earlier and spread across the country), broadcasts began in black and white on 405-lines from the Black Hill transmitter. BBC Two upgraded to PAL colour in 1967 (including Scotland) across the UK, with BBC One (network programmes only at first, with local output still in black-and-white) and STV following in December 1969, and in 1971, BBC Scotland's Queen Margaret Drive Studio "A" in Glasgow became one of the first regional studios in Britain to upgrade to colour.
In September 1998, BBC Choice Scotland was launched as BBC Scotland's first digital service. The launch of CBeebies and the CBBC channel gave BBC Scotland a new window for national programming, producing no less than fourteen programmes for them; meanwhile the local CBBC department was increasing its staff fivefold (from 20 to 100) to accommodate the new channels. By 2007, it produced 20% of the combined output of the two national BBC children's channels.
Recent years
For many years, BBC Scotland has tried to increase the number of programmes it makes to be shown on the networks. This ambition was greatly aided by the move of BBC Scotland's headquarters in 2007 from Queen Margaret Drive to BBC Pacific Quay where state of the art digital studios were built. In March 2021, a decision was taken by the BBC to relocated jobs and departments from London to other parts of the BBC network, including BBC Scotland. As part of the restructure, the technology team for the BBC moved from London to Glasgow. Productions by the BBC such as The Weakest Link, Newsnight Review and "at least one Saturday night primetime show" would be relocated to Scotland, produced by BBC Scotland in Glasgow.
The BBC's flagship political and debating programme, Question Time, had its permanent base moved to Glasgow in 2009. The relocation of Question Time to Glasgow sparked some controversy, with former executive producer of the programme, George Carey, claiming the move from London to Glasgow would "editorially weaken the show and increase costs".
Current services
BBC Scotland broadcasts three television services to Scottish audiences.
BBC One Scotland
BBC One Scotland is a separate channel able to opt out of the network feed of BBC One to broadcast its own schedule of regional programming in addition to networked productions. The flagship news programme BBC Reporting Scotland is presented by Laura Miller and Laura Goodwin. Additionally, BBC One Scotland broadcasts several Scottish specific broadcasting, such as Sportscene, The Sunday Show and investigation series BBC Disclosure.
BBC Alba
BBC Scotland operates BBC Alba, broadcasting programming in Gaelic for up to seven hours a day. The channel is a joint partnership between BBC Scotland and MG Alba and is available across the UK on satellite and cable services and Freeview in Scotland only. During downtime, BBC Alba simulcasts Gaelic radio station BBC Radio nan Gàidheal with an in-vision graphical overlay. Prior to digital switchover, some Gaelic programming was carried on BBC Two Scotland, however this ceased following the switchover.
BBC Scotland channel
On 22 February 2017, director general Tony Hall announced plans to launch a dedicated English-language BBC Scotland channel in 2018, which would replace a BBC Two opt-out called BBC Two Scotland. It would broadcast from 7:00 p.m. to midnight every day and feature a lineup composed entirely of new and archived Scottish programming, including a new hour-long news programme called The Nine. The proposed newscast was considered a response to proposals for a local opt-out of the BBC News at Six. Hall also announced that the BBC would increase its overall spending on factual and drama productions in Scotland by £20 million annually.
The BBC Scotland channel was approved by Ofcom in June 2018, and subsequently launched on 24 February 2019. The channel is allocated £32 million in annual funding, and its SD variant has displaced BBC Four on the Freeview EPG. The BBC Scotland channel commenced broadcasting at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday 24 February 2019.
Programming for the BBC Scotland channel currently includes Debate Night, The Entertainment Mix and Scotland's Home of the Year. The stations flagship news programme, The Nine, was broadcast from February 2019 until December 2024, when it was replaced by a new shorter programme, Reporting Scotland: News at Seven, which airs directly following its sister programme, Reporting Scotland, which is broadcast on BBC One Scotland.
Radio BBC Scotland also operates two radio stations covering Scotland: BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. The former broadcasts English programming 24 hours a day on the frequencies 92–95 FM and 810 MW. The station has specific programming opt outs for Orkney and Shetland in addition to regional news opt outs for four additional sub regions – North East, Highlands & Islands, South West and Borders. BBC Radio nan Gàidheal in contrast is a Gaelic-language station broadcasting for the majority of the day on 103.5–105 FM and simulcasting Radio Scotland's MW service at other times.
Online and interactive BBC Scotland operates a mini site on BBC Online consisting of a portal to Scottish news, sport, programmes and items of cultural interest through BBC Online. The department also provides content from Scotland on these subjects to the website and for the BBC Red Button interactive TV service. BBC Scotland previously offered a podcast download of the top news items of the week and the online streaming of several key sections of output. However following the widespread introduction of the BBC iPlayer service, which allowed the streaming and download of nearly all BBC programmes including news, these services were discontinued as defunct.
BBC's The Social is a digital content stream from BBC Scotland aimed at 18–34 year olds. Working with new and emerging talent, The Social develops daily content on a range of subjects including issues, comedy, music, lifestyle and gaming. Launched in December 2015, The Social won a Royal Television Society Scotland Award for Best Digital Innovation in 2016 and another in 2018 for the shortform drama Kidder. In June 2018, the BBC announced the formation of a third "digital hub" in Glasgow, which will facilitate design and engineering of BBC digital platforms.
Studios
Early studios
BBC Scotland began broadcasting in Scotland on 10 October 1923 from the Aberdeen studios in Belmont Street, Aberdeen. The first broadcast for the station was at risk of being impacted by severe gales which resulted in telephone wires being damaged, however, following extensive work by engineers to resolve the damage and associated issues, the broadcast went ahead as planned with minimal issues. Stonehaven did experience issues with the broadcast however, which was later accredited to issues relating to climate.
When the new commercial broadcaster, Scottish Television (STV), was about to arrive in 1957, BBC Scotland managed to produce slightly improved news coverage by a complicated arrangement involving the newsroom in Queen Margaret Drive in the west of the city and the former Black Cat Cinema in Springfield Road in the east where The White Heather Club was made.
Rex House
Upon the launch of the BBC in Scotland in 1923, the service originally occupied Rex House at 202 Bath Street, Glasgow, before moving to properties in Blythswood Square and subsequently in West George Street. In 1929, the decision was made to move the headquarters operation to Queen Street, Edinburgh, where the Edinburgh station had been based since 1924 following a move from the original 79 George Street premises. However, in 1935 the BBC acquired Queen Margaret College at North Park House, Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow, near to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, and the headquarters operation moved back to Glasgow in 1936 accompanying the Glasgow radio station. BBC Scotland remained based at these premises until the move to Pacific Quay in 2007. The Edinburgh operation remained on Queen Street until the move to The Tun in April 2002. The Tun building is near to the Scottish Parliament building and contains television and radio studios in addition to a newsroom.
The college closed in 1935 and principal architect James Miller began adapting the Glasgow site for BBC Scotland in 1936, allowing for the site's buildings to be used in the production, administration and broadcasting of BBC Scotland's radio and television.(RCAHMS)
In the early 1960s, the BBC acquired land adjacent to its Queen Margaret Drive base and eventually three colour studios were built together with significant radio facilities and a Film Unit with its own film processing. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra had access to a large sound studio – Studio 1, from 1937 until 2006 when it moved from Studio 1 to the newly-rebuilt City Halls in Merchant City area of Glasgow.
Pacific Quay
BBC Scotland's headquarters are currently located at BBC Pacific Quay on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow. The BBC had outgrown their old headquarters in Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow. The need to move to a new location was also in part due to changing technology, with the network having a "desire to move with the times beyond a less than fit for purpose HQ to a new building which would avail us of the latest digital technology to offer improved quality to audiences".