BBC chiefs have pointed to a “highly competitive market” for the uneven performance of its new digital channel for Scotland.
The BBC Scotland digital channel attained just shy of one-third of all audiences in Scotland, new figures show.
Nonetheless the corporation said it remained very encouraged by its early days.
Noting that the channel, which has a main 9pm news bulletin, The Nine, as its centrepiece, has been launched in a “highly competitive market” the corporation said the channel reached 32 per cent of all audiences north of the Border.
This figure, the BBC said, puts it ahead of all other channels in Scotland with the exception of BBC One and ITV. And they insisted they were looking to the long term.
Read more: TV REVIEW: Is the new BBC Scotland channel magic or mince?
A statement said: “Our long-term aim is to establish a channel that consistently delivers content for contemporary Scotland that resonates with our audiences and the feedback we’ve had so far has been very positive.”
Audiences for The Nine, the station’s flagship show which covers news and current affairs, began strongly and have been variable since then.
The news programme had an average audience of 45,000 and a 3.2% share in Scotland on its first night, with viewer numbers dropping to an average of 12,000 the following night.
It has had an average audience, according to Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB) figures, of 28,000, or a 1.8% share. The BBC said the show, which is hosted by Rebecca Curran and Martin Geissler, has reached 329,000 individual viewers.
Read more: Alison Rowat: Marks out of 10 for BBC Scotland's The Nine?
A BBC spokesman added: “Again, this is firmly within the performance range of news programmes on digital channels. The news hour is among a large numbers programmes that have received positive audience feedback on social media for the range and quality of its content.”
He added: “We’re very encouraged by the start the BBC Scotland channel has made. It’s exciting and challenging to launch a new service for our audiences in a highly competitive market.
“Our long-term aim is to establish a channel that consistently delivers content for contemporary Scotland.” The launch night of the channel drew an audience share of 13%, making it only the third most watched channel in Scotland during its hours of broadcast.
In the six nights following launch, the channel had a 3.1% share of the audience which, the BBC said, “is within the range that Ofcom produced in its research.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel