BBC bosses are considering plans to axe their digital TV channel in Scotland as part of a major cost-cutting drive.
The corporation last week announced it intends to axe between 1,800 and 2,000 jobs across the UK – or almost one in 10 – in a bid to tackle ‘significant financial pressures’.
Final plans have yet to be drawn up, but the Mail has been told the future of the BBC Scotland channel is in doubt after years of controversy over low viewing figures and repeats.
It emerged last year that fewer than one in eight adults watched the BBC Scotland channel each week in 2024 – despite it having cost licence-payers more than £200million since its launch.
Scottish Tory culture spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘The BBC has a responsibility to deliver value for money for the viewers who fund the licence fee.
'It’s up to bosses to decide whether the BBC Scotland channel can deliver that, but viewers just want and expect quality news coverage, sport, drama and entertainment.’
BBC Scotland presenter Amy Irons hosts News at Seven
One BBC insider in Scotland said: ‘The direction of travel is clear. It’s widely assumed BBC3 and BBC4 will end as linear channels in the next few years.
‘Few think the BBC Scotland channel in its current form has a future.
‘The emphasis would be on Scottish content for BBC1, BBC2 and iPlayer.’
The channel reached only 13 per cent of the population in 2024 and was watched for only an hour and 33 minutes a week by the average viewer.
According to BBC accounts for 2024/25, the yearly cost of the channel was £42million.
Lowlights of BBC Scotland
The omens for The Nine were far from promising on the second night of its run, when viewer numbers dipped to 4,200 – roughly the population of the Perthshire town of Auchterarder
In 2019, BBC Scotland was forced into a humiliating U-turn after it ditched plans to give a TV role to a man who taught a dog to perform a Nazi salute
As part of a trendy BBC Scotland project called The Social, the leader of Ukip’s ‘youth wing’ produced an online video in which he offered his support to English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson
Quiz show WonderBall, fronted by newsreader Catriona Shearer, pictured, flopped after audience numbers plunged from 14,000 on launch night to just over 1,000
In 2018, the channel was at the centre of an equal pay row after it emerged Martin Geissler, then co-presenter of The Nine, would earn more than his fellow anchor Rebecca Curran
Figures in 2019 showed some programmes on the channel had attracted zero viewers – 21 shows had no audience at all
Last year, BBC Scotland’s flagship news show Reporting Scotland: News at Seven was launched on the digital channel, replacing The Nine, which was axed after a row over low viewer numbers.
At one point it reached just 1,700 people.
It was ditched along with entertainment news show The Edit and weekly news review Seven Days.
News at Seven aims to complement Reporting Scotland, the BBC One news programme screened at 6.30pm.
It is presented by Laura Maciver and Amy Irons, who take turns fronting the programme.
It emerged last year the cost of the BBC Scotland channel since its launch in 2019 has now hit £204million.
Former BBC Scotland editor Professor Tim Luckhurst has previously said that the digital channel ‘should close immediately’ as it ‘costs money the BBC can’t afford’.
The BBC source said: ‘Any decision would probably be part of a wider review of services.
The wheels of the BBC turn very slowly. There are strategic reviews and consultation processes to follow.
‘The fight will be to minimise cuts to jobs and programmes – not the channel itself. I think the argument by 2030 would be that what matters is jobs, money and programmes.
‘Simply arguing for a linear channel would be symbolic.’
Any move to target the BBC Scotland channel would risk a political backlash from the SNP.
Welcoming the launch of the channel in 2017, the then Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: ‘This is a shift in the right direction from the BBC and responds to calls we’ve made for some time for a new TV channel for Scotland.’
The BBC needs to make £500million savings over the next two years, and earlier this month interim director general Rhodri Talfan Davies did not rule out axing entire channels or services.
Senior BBC figures are said to want to scrap the News Channel, Radio 1 and Radio 2 as well as BBC Three.
The BBC said it had made no announcements in relation to specific savings plans.
It is understood any proposals for Scotland will not be produced until the summer.