Edinburgh International Television Festival: Alex Salmond, Scottish First Minister, Would Break Up BBC If Scotland Gained Independence

Salmond Would Break Up BBC In Independent Scotland

Scotland's First Minister has said he would replace BBC Scotland if the nation votes for independence, offering the country its own public service broadcaster.

Alex Salmond said the current situation had left Scottish viewers and production talent "short-changed".

Alex Salmond would replace BBC Scotland with a new public service broadcaster

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, the SNP leader said: "In an age of a digital revolution, broadcasting has not even adapted to devolution."

Outlining his party's plans, he said: "We'd also establish a national public service broadcaster based on the existing staff and assets of BBC Scotland, further details on how that broadcaster would operate and its continuing relationship with the BBC will be published next year."

Salmond said there would be "continued access" for programme-makers from outside Scotland to supply content to the new broadcaster.

He said the most popular BBC shows would remain for viewers and joked that EastEnders would be safe in an independent Scotland.

Salmond said the new broadcaster would take the share of the licence fee currently paid to the BBC by Scottish viewers, and any future level of the new licence fee would be up for "discussion".

Salmond compared the situation to the Republic of Ireland where the national broadcaster shows BBC shows including EastEnders as well as more nationally focused material.

He also raised the success of the Gaelic language channel BBC Alba - which attracts an audience much larger than the numbers who speak Gaelic.

Shadow secretary of state for Scotland Margaret Curran MP said Salmond had not provided any details about how his plan would work.

She said: "The creative industries in Scotland have been one of the success stories of the last few years, even through the recession. Labour's decision to push the BBC out of London has had a knock-on effect, meaning that there are now over 100 TV production companies in Scotland and 15,000 people employed in the industry, centred on Glasgow.

"Four years ago, Alex Salmond handpicked the man now running his independence campaign to chair a commission tasked with making the case for splitting up broadcasting. Even he couldn't deliver what the First Minister wanted and made the case for sticking with the BBC and a shared approach.

"Despite the weight of evidence that we're better working together with the BBC, Alex Salmond still wants to break up the BBC. It's about time that he concentrated on strengthening our creative industries rather than seeking to destabilise them."

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: "This is another nonsensical outburst about how everything will be better in a separate Scotland - the only things missing, as usual, are the evidence and the detail.

"I suppose he'd want to call it Scolympia TV.

"It will take more than a handful of historic references to convince the people of Scotland of yet another spurious claim."

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