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:Yes. I will regret not mentioning Channel 5, although I do not watch that on linear output either.

However, my point is not an unfair characterisation. We have the linear issue, and then we have a BBC Scotland channel that is available on linear television but is not number 1, and we have all that at this moment of change, as we move towards much more of an on-demand situation. We know that to be true, because we know what the streamers do. We tell them where we are, through the geographical locator, and they also begin to learn our viewing habits. Mr Bibby might be into sport and Mr Halcro Johnston might be into opera or whatever it is.

:I am not aware of there being a Government position on that, although Mr Halcro Johnston knows that there are parliamentary rules about what is permissible that he and I, whether as members of the Scottish Parliament or the Westminster Parliament, have to stick to. The issue of permissibility is partly to do with the policing of such matters. On the margins, there have always been concerns about whether rules are being followed, which is absolutely right and proper when we are talking about public funding.

10:00

Mr Halcro Johnston might point out that he can advertise his surgeries on any number of social media sites and can satisfy himself, as most of us do, that that is a highly cost-effective way of advertising that those surgeries are to take place in different places. That is another example of how fast the world is changing.

However, the question about local radio is one for the parliamentary authorities. Such advertising is not allowed on television, either, but that is more to do with the perception that it would bring politics on to television.

Some people are very imaginative. I know one political party that advertises very effectively at the St Mirren home ground—I am looking at the member for Paisley—and gets itself on television every time there is a corner.

:Surely not.

:I agree with Mr Kerr, but I want to make a wider observation: I encourage the BBC and others across the sector to become involved in the teaching of screen studies. Their interest should start earlier than third-level education. Perhaps that is an issue that could be looked at in the next parliamentary session. We need to better understand the provision across Scotland’s colleges and universities of screen studies, film studies, broadcasting studies and all attendant subjects that might be connected.

We have inherited a position that is atomised. Because of the absence of an established screen sector at scale, there has not been a concomitant provision of service at our colleges or universities that has specialised in broadcast and screen. This emerging sector—there are more studios, more independent production companies, more work and more projects, and the direction of travel is good—is an area where there is definitely room to grow.

Mr Kerr spoke about the lack of a “structured connection”. That is part of it, but there is a bigger issue than that, which is that we need to understand the level of training that is provided by colleges and, importantly, the trades. The trades play an important role in the broadcast and screen sector. I am referring to trades that one might not think about in relation to broadcast and screen—there is a really exciting career opportunity for people who may want to become electricians, joiners or, by extension, screen builders.

:Yes.

:At various stages, I have met people who are involved in the project. The Government wants to be as supportive as possible, but, understandably, there is a requirement for that to be an arm’s-length body because of the independence of journalism. There is a challenge in that, and I would be happy to write to the committee to update it on where things have got to, if that would be helpful.

:Your observations are entirely fair. I say that as somebody who lived in Aberdeen for four years and represented a parliamentary constituency in the north-east of Scotland for 16 years.

Historically, the relationship with Grampian Television was strong. People in that area felt that Grampian Television was linked to their community and to having news from their part of Scotland. People there are right to feel that the provision of public service broadcasting, particularly in the context of news, has been denuded. At what point do the holders of the powers to intervene say, “This far and no further”?

:First, I acknowledge the reality in which they find themselves. In effect, what is happening is that significant commissioning is taking place at the highest end of television and production—

:I am not here to represent STV, but I have met its executives, and I have heard them lay out their case—because they are a commercial organisation—for why they need to make such changes.

Ultimately, there has to be a balancing act. Any fair-minded person would concede that a commercial organisation must balance its commercial interests with its public service obligations, which is where Ofcom, at times, needs to adjudicate.

:Mr Kerr looks so disappointed.