Seòmar agus comataidhean

:It does, but it is not for me to sit here and speak on behalf of Ofcom.

:My opinion is that Ofcom should use its powers more—for example, on commissioning, the spirit of the outcome of the rules, as well as the letter, is clear to be seen and understood. There has almost been a reticence on the part of Ofcom to use its full powers for fear of I do not know what.

That is why there is a regulator in this space. We need it to do what it should be doing. It has some very competent people working for it who can make that happen.

:Yes, it does.

:That is a fair concern, because the jury is out on what happened on those two examples when Ofcom had a locus; it should have protected screen commissioning in Scotland, and in the case of public service obligations to news, it should have protected the interests of viewers, but it did not do that to the full. One has to be concerned that it will not use its powers to the full to the advantage of the viewer and, by extension, provision in Scotland. Both those things should matter.

In fairness, I have to concede that Ofcom has to balance quite a number of competing interests, and I think that most fair-minded people would do that. However, you have boiled it down to a very simple point, Mr Adam, which is, should one not be acting in the interest of the viewer and consumer, and not just in the interest of the broadcaster in question? That is a fair concern to highlight.

:There was quite a lot in that question. I should say that I worked for the first public service broadcaster to become digital in Europe, and that change was, at the time, revolutionary. The idea of radio stations editing tape, literally with a razor blade, for the evening news is still quite recent, or I am that old—whichever way one wants to look at it. However, I started working in broadcasting when that change was happening.

What mystifies me about the situation with STV is that we are discussing the phenomena that Mr Adam has described, instead of whether it is adopting new and transformational technology to provide news content that people in the north-east of Scotland really want to see. That, to me, is the missed opportunity. It did not concentrate on that; instead, it was prepared to concentrate on the bottom line, not on the viewers.

Perhaps Ofcom’s arrival after these decisions have been made is part of the problem. A very accelerated change is going on out there, and it is having an impact on broadcasters. The environment in which people consume news—and, indeed, everything else—is changing, and public service broadcasters are taking a differentiated approach to dealing with this new technology. Meanwhile, all the rest of us—some of us on our phones—are having our content provided in an automated way by an algorithm. It is the difference between the analogue world and the digital tech world, and an outdated approach to things is going to lead to the death of services. That is it in a nutshell.

:No. I would not conflate the two things.

On the one hand, we have the issue of linear access, whereby people consider channels 1, 2, 3 and 4 to be important, and everything else to be a lot less important. If they have kids, they perhaps also know where CBeebies is, or they perhaps like the history channel or whatever. I think that that is probably where most people are at.

:Or country pursuits. However, we will say rugby. After a while, the algorithm knows that Mr Halcro Johnston likes watching rugby, and that he lives in Scotland. Ergo, the chances are that, on the iPlayer, he will get much more rugby, and Scottish rugby, content. I think that that is how everything that is produced on and for the BBC Scotland channel will be accessed, because, frankly, everything is going to be accessed through iPlayer or the equivalent on STV and so on.

:That is a perennial question, and I am sympathetic to the perspective that you come from in asking it. You are right to point out that there are tremendous community radio stations. There is also local news provision, which is important, through the likes of BBC Orkney, BBC Shetland, BBC Aberdeen and the opt-outs, and they work very well. When I was the member of Parliament for Moray, it was important for me to know what was in the local headlines. All of that is important.

As Mr Halcro Johnston knows, the Government advertises in support of health campaigns and so on, and decisions about advertising are taken on a commercial basis and involve analysis of its effectiveness. I would want to be assured that that advertising was reaching the public. If, as part of that, it could help to support local media, I would be supportive of that.

Perhaps one needs to see things through the other end of the telescope and identify whether there are any particular campaigns that one might want to deliberately direct through more local community outputs. I am happy to take that away and to reapprise myself of that issue so that Mr Halcro Johnston can pursue his interest in it.

:I will say yes and then leave one thought with you by circling back to a question that you asked earlier, which was about skills. Something really exciting is happening in relation to the broadcasting and screen sector. I strongly encourage the committee to take an interest in the introduction of screen studies in Scottish schools, because we are the first country in the world to do that, and I believe that it has the potential to be transformational. The draft curriculum is available online if colleagues want to have a look at how it will be rolled out in schools, at both primary and secondary level. I am particularly enthused because I am confident that, in particular areas in which we would not traditionally have educated kids to expect that they might have a career in broadcasting or screen, the curriculum will give them a solid introduction to all of that, with a view to pursuing a career in the sector.

There are attendant advantages to having that subject taught in Scottish schools, which I know that Mr Kerr will be interested in because of his interest in the matter. Piloting of the subject showed that it had a transformational impact on kids who were thought to be unlikely to stay on for fifth or sixth year or to pursue more academic qualifications. Their interest in and attendance at school changed noticeably following the introduction of screen studies.

There is a lot to that, but I wanted to share with the committee my enthusiasm for something that I think will be transformational in schools and in our broadcasting and screen sector in the years to come.

:I agree with you. There is a systemic problem, and I find it frustrating that the issues have been raised repeatedly.

You might be aware that, recently, the BBC network managed to misreport the headline announcements from the Scottish Government budget. That was pointed out to the BBC, but it did not correct it on air. It then suggested that it would be difficult to correct it in the programme the next day, until I said that I would escalate the matter to the director general of the BBC. Then, I was informed that the BBC would correct the error the next day. That was on the day of the Scottish Government budget. The next morning, the BBC “Today” programme did not manage to mention the Scottish Government budget once in three hours of headlines and discussion.

When I raised that with Tim Davie, he agreed that the matter was so serious that I should speak with the head of news and the editor of the programme, who conceded that both examples were failures on their part. I appreciated their candour and understanding that that was a particularly egregious example of what you pointed out, convener.

All of that was the subject of the King report—which was written a long time ago—and it all reflects the inability of the BBC, and indeed others, to report the realities of devolution and the asymmetrical nature of Governments in the UK. Commitments have been received time and again that the BBC takes that seriously and is doing the best that it can.

08:45

Convener, you gave an example from “Woman’s Hour”. This morning, the “Today” programme again managed to report on student loans at length without pointing out, at any point, that that was only relevant in one part of the United Kingdom.

The BBC has a systemic problem in its news coverage in relation to commission and omission. It has guidelines but is not fulfilling them. We have had commitments that the BBC will be sorting that out but, to be absolutely frank, I do not think that it is doing so at all. That is another reason why broadcasting should be devolved. The BBC and others think that they can get away with that, frankly. It is actually a matter of misleading licence fee payers in Scotland by misreporting or not reporting things that should be accurately reported by a public service broadcaster. That is not good enough and it must change.