Local Television
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-08987, in the name of Joan McAlpine, on fairness for local television in Scotland. The debate will be concluded without any question being put. I invite members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request-to-speak button now, or as soon as possible.
Before I call Joan McAlpine, I further invite members who are leaving the chamber and people who are leaving the gallery to do so quickly and quietly.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the establishment of new local television services for Scotland; recognises the role that they can play in delivering public service broadcasting commitments such as news and current affairs; understands that Glasgow and Edinburgh have won local licences and that Ayr, in the South Scotland region, is on the shortlist for the next round of licences as well as Dundee, Inverness, Falkirk and Aberdeen; considers that local television’s public service content justifies a prominent position in electronic programming guides of Freeview and other digital providers to maximise discoverability by viewers; notes with concern that Digital UK, the body responsible for allocating channel slots on these electronic programming guides, proposes to locate new local television channels at position 26 in Scotland compared with position 8 in other parts of the UK, and notes calls for all stakeholders and those with a regulatory responsibility for broadcasting, including Ofcom, which has a Scotland office, to work together to ensure that local television in Scotland is not disadvantaged.
12:34
As the debate is about media matters, I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests. I write a column for the Daily Record newspaper, which is owned by the Trinity Mirror Group.
I am delighted to be leading the debate, and I thank members from across Parliament who have signed the motion. I also thank the Carnegie UK Trust for its briefing for the debate, and STV for working closely with me to make the debate possible. I welcome visitors from STV and the University of the West of Scotland to the gallery.
We in Parliament are all familiar with the challenges for local news in the age of the internet. In the past seven years across the United Kingdom, 242 local newspapers have closed completely, and £400 million of advertising revenue has disappeared. However, the public value local news. As the Carnegie Trust briefing points out, local news is
“a hub of citizen engagement”,
is “essential” to local democracy, and it
“connects people to place and each other.”
That is reflected in the fact that 73 per cent of us believe that our local media are is the best media for making us feel part of a community.
For that reason, we should welcome the arrival of the new local television channels. There was, of course, initial disquiet when the first licences in Scotland went to Glasgow and Edinburgh. South Scotland, which I represent, is poorly served by television at the moment, so I commented previously on the logic of that decision. The Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, raised concerns about it at the time. However, having said that, I warmly welcome the launch of STV Glasgow next week and STV Edinburgh later this year. The regulator, the Office of Communications, will soon invite applications for local TV stations in Aberdeen, Dundee, Inverness and Ayr, and is considering advertising a licence for Falkirk, so we could have Kelpie TV as well.
STV Glasgow will begin broadcasting on 2 June—next Monday—at half past 6 in the evening. I was fortunate to visit STV’s new studio on the Clyde a couple of weeks ago, which has been built with a panoramic view of the river and takes in the Finnieston crane, the squinty bridge, the Armadillo and the SSE Hydro, all of which look spectacular. A magazine show will be broadcast against that panorama that will feature cooking with chefs from the city’s restaurants. I particularly welcome the inclusion of “Tenement TV”, which showcases local bands and bands that are visiting the city, because there has been no TV platform in Scotland for unsigned young bands for quite a while. That is an opportunity to develop talent; in that regard, it should also be noted that STV has created 26 new roles for the new TV channel.
Bobby Hain, who is the director of channels at STV, has reported that advance advertising sales for the new station have been buoyant, with city businesses being attracted by the opportunity to reach a concentrated audience of 2 million at rates that are lower than the national rates. That is all good, and we hope that it will be replicated when local TV licences are rolled out across Scotland.
The motion for debate today is about fairness for local television and is focused on the need to give it appropriate prominence on the electronic programme guide, which has an important influence on what we watch. In England, local TV appears on channel 8 of the Freeview electronic programme guide, but in Scotland it will be on channel 23, because BBC Alba occupies the channel 8 slot in Scotland. I want to make it very clear that BBC Alba has widespread support and that STV and I have no problem at all with its occupying that slot. The unfairness here is that, according to the Communications Act 2003, the regulator, Ofcom, should oblige providers of electronic programme guides to give a degree of prominence to public service channels. There are lots of shopping, movie and entertainment channels that could be moved to accommodate local TV, but that has not happened in Scotland. For example, no one could argue that ITV 2 provides a public service, but it is on page 1 of the guide. We have to ask why.
The answer seems to be clear: Digital UK—the industry conglomerate that provides the Freeview electronic programme guide—has the power, but it acts in the interests of the industry’s biggest players, including ITV and the BBC. Digital UK has a policy that is supposed to favour public service channels, including those that provide local TV, but in Scotland’s case it has ignored its own guidelines. What is perhaps even more worrying is that the regulator, Ofcom, does not interpret the Communications Act 2003 as giving it the power to demand that public service channels get due prominence, and so refuses to intervene in the matter.
A solution recently emerged, because the proposal to move BBC 3 online provides an opportunity to promote local TV in Scotland. I recently wrote to Digital UK to ask it to support such a solution, but I was told that the BBC trust has still to make a decision on BBC 3’s future, so Digital UK will not comment until then. Of course, the BBC is a major player in Digital UK, which controls the electronic programme guide, so I was very worried to read of hints that are coming out of the BBC that it would like to use the vacant slot for BBC 1 +1, which again would stymie local television in Scotland.
That has exposed a flaw in the legislation that covers the whole UK. If the communications legislation cannot enforce prominence for public service channels in Scotland, there is a danger that public service channels could also lose prominence elsewhere in the UK. The UK Government appears to recognise that and it has announced that it will seek to introduce new legislation to rectify the situation. However, there is no timeline for that legislation and even if it is introduced, it will come too late to benefit the services that are being launched this year in Scotland.
Of course, the outcome of the referendum could make the debate redundant by transferring regulatory powers over broadcasting from Westminster to this Parliament. However, I am keen to achieve consensus in the debate, so I will not take that point any further. Whatever our position on the constitution, I hope that we can all agree that it is in the interests of democracy for local TV not to be disadvantaged. I therefore hope that we can work together across the chamber for the fairest possible outcome, and not just in the commercial interest of broadcasters but in the interests of building strong communities, enhancing civic engagement and strengthening local democracy.
12:41
I apologise because I may have to leave before the end of the debate as I have friends from Northern Ireland to meet.
I am delighted to speak in the debate and I congratulate my colleague Joan McAlpine on securing it. Fairness and broadcasting go hand in hand, and that applies as much to our national public broadcaster as it does to local television. However, today the focus is on local television and, indeed, on the increasingly reputable STV and commercial and local television.
As a member for South Scotland and a resident of Ayr, I welcome the issuing of local TV licences for Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the fact that Ayr is on the shortlist for the next round of licence distribution. I am sure that Deputy Presiding Officer John Scott welcomes it, too.
I quoted in the chamber on 30 January 2013, on a related matter, the UK minister who was responsible for broadcasting at that time, Jeremy Hunt, who had said that he wanted people to be able to
“watch television that’s truly relevant to them, about what’s happening where they live and featuring the people they know.”
That is fair. At that time—there is no reason to believe that anything has changed—Ofcom asserted that nine out of 10 adults consume local and national news, and that 75 per cent of them rate local news and weather as personal and important types of communication for them.
I welcome the increased role that Borders TV is playing in assisting meeting local needs and expectations. However, as regards an expansion into more local television to meet the clear and stated needs and expectations of which I spoke, the public service channels that are being used are not, in Scotland at least, the highest available logical channel numbers. It appears that the obligation to provide news and current affairs will be met with the relegation of Scotland’s new local services to lower down the EPG listings—lower than shopping, music and movie channels.
That lack of prominence, which Joan McAlpine mentioned—that lack of primacy for local public service channels—must be addressed. We are, of course, excited about the launch of STV Glasgow on 2 June, albeit that it will be on Freeview channel 23—not 26—which is not high in the EPG listings. That will be another significant milestone in achievement by STV, but it should not be accompanied by a charter for remote-control flickers. The quality of its output merits a logical channel number that is higher than the one that it has been allotted, and also therefore merits prominence that is consistent with customer demands. That will be no less important for Ayr in South Scotland than it is for Glasgow. Ofcom is denying the provisions in section 310 of the Communications Act 2003. In relation to those provisions, Ofcom’s EPG code states on channel listings:
“Ofcom will have regard to the interests of citizens and the expectations of consumers”.
Ofcom should manage those expectations appropriately.
Paragraph 2.47 of the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s July 2011 document, “A new framework for local TV in the UK”, says:
“The Government wants to achieve EPG prominence on Freeview through acquiring a sufficiently high channel number. The Government hopes that this will be channel 8 ... in England and Northern Ireland and another high number”—
I repeat: “another high number”—
“for services in Wales and Scotland”
The document goes on to say that
“This must ensure that EPG providers give the listing and ... promotion of the programmes on public service channels an appropriate degree of prominence.”
I repeat that 23 is not a low number and I hope that all that is remembered when BBC Three is closed down in autumn 2015.
12:45
I, too, thank Joan McAlpine for securing this opportunity to discuss local television in Scotland, and I offer her Labour’s support in trying to ensure that local television stations are not disadvantaged, but are given the platform and the profile that they need to succeed.
This is an exciting and a challenging time for broadcasting in Scotland. The creation of new local television channels, the first of which will begin broadcasting on Monday, offers all sorts of opportunities: opportunities for communities to express themselves, to share ideas and information, and to offer a new perspective.
I was sorry not to be able to join colleagues in Glasgow just over a week ago at the launch of the STV services for Glasgow and Edinburgh—although I was not so sorry when I heard what happened to my East Renfrewshire colleague, Jim Murphy MP. For those who were not there, the event included a large and very heavy horse that was intended to look like the iconic statue of the Duke of Wellington outside Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, complete with parking cone on head. The reason why I know that the horse was large and heavy was that it stood on Jim’s foot and would not budge.
Hear, hear.
I knew that that would be applauded by some members. I think it was applauded by members of the Labour Party, too. That is what you call voting with your feet.
Anyway—horsey tales aside—it is exciting that communities around Scotland will have a new source of local news and information. It could not come at a better time, with traditional print news media in a state of crisis and disarray. The Carnegie UK Trust has reminded us that 242 local newspapers have closed in seven years, and all but two of the UK’s regional daily papers saw a year-on-year decrease in circulation in the past six months. As Joan McAlpine highlighted, almost £400 million in print advertising revenue is forecast to have been lost from the newspaper market by the end of this year.
That is accompanied by the fact that all of us—and the younger generation in particular—are now accessing our news and information more and more through different media. Whether the medium is digital TV, social media or other online sources, pictures and broadcast material have never been more important. I, for one, am very hopeful that Scotland’s new local television services will provide a vital service that will broaden the range of voices that we can hear, preserve local democracy and strengthen our communities.
That is certainly not guaranteed—many of us will be familiar with the old Bruce Springsteen song “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On)”—but it is an opportunity that many Scots will grasp. If they are to do so, one of the problems that they will undoubtedly have to overcome is that of where on the electronic programme guide viewers will be able to find their local station. As Joan McAlpine said, across most of the UK local TV stations will be found on channel 8. Here in Scotland and in Wales, too, they will be on channel 23. That is partly for good reason, because our Gaelic channel, BBC Alba, is on channel 8, and in Wales it is it taken by S4C.
Much as I want a good slot for our new local television output, I certainly do not want to move BBC Alba. It is a very successful station that is not just serving the needs of the Gaelic community and is essential to the revival of the language, but is providing a much appreciated service to the whole of Scotland. The most recent figures show that BBC Alba has an average weekly reach of 750,000.
However, make no mistake: the slot that a channel gets on the electronic programme guide matters. An Ofcom analysis concluded:
“The evidence strongly supports the view that EPG positioning is likely to have a significant impact on a channel’s performance. Based on this evidence, we consider that if a major digital entertainment channel suffered a significant loss of EPG prominence, this would be associated with a 10-20% drop in audience share on the Freeview platform and a 20-40% fall in audience share on the Sky and Virgin Media platforms.”
It is my understanding that Digital UK is willing to move Scotland’s local TV stations higher up the guide when slots become available. In fact, in the interim period between when Joan McAlpine lodged the motion and the launch of the stations, Digital UK has moved our stations up from channel 26 to channel 23. I offer my support for that approach. I believe that we should give the new stations every chance of success; giving them a prominent position among our plethora of digital channels is one way of doing so. I again thank Joan McAlpine for securing the debate.
12:50
I join others in congratulating Joan McAlpine on securing this important debate. I apologise for perhaps not hearing the whole debate, should I have to leave early for the Conveners Group meeting that starts shortly, although I will certainly look at it afterwards.
The Scottish Parliament information centre tells me that broadcast media—TV and radio—employ something like 3,500 people in Scotland, so it is a significant industry. More fundamentally, it is significant for the people who consume the industry’s products. One of the little things that gives us an insight into what the public wants is the circulation of the Press and Journal, which is roughly equivalent to that of The Herald and The Scotsman put together. Why is that so? It is because the P and J is essentially a paper that is rooted in local news, as it has outposts across the north and north-east of Scotland, with journalists embedded in communities and reporting on what is going on. Every day the P and J has a page and a half of news from my constituency.
There is an appetite for local news, which the new stations absolutely play into. The time for local television has come, as the cost of entry has shrunk to an entirely different level from that which it was at years ago. We must not allow the initiative to fail because of some essentially technical issues around the stations achieving the right prominence. If channel 7 is going to be available, it should—to be blunt—be allocated to those stations, because we have public service broadcasters in the east and in the west and will have later in other parts of Scotland. Ofcom should respond to its guidance and allocate the channel to those stations.
There has been a bit of a lack of imagination on the part of Ofcom in examining other ways of achieving such prominence for the channels. This week, for example, when I came back and switched my telly on in my wee house down here, a message said, “There are new channels available. You have to retune.” I pressed the retune button, and three minutes later the TV had retuned. That is fascinating. However, I have examined the behaviour of Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Humax and Pace boxes—just a sample, not a comprehensive survey—and they always wipe my favourites. The reality is that if we could get our favourites set up so that retuning did not interfere with them, it would be okay when such a message came up and we had put our local channels on the favourites. However, the reality is that every time we retune, it overwrites our choices. The software that does that in all those boxes is downloaded from the network, so Ofcom could set regulations for the software as well as for the data content of the EPG, and could require the providers of the software not to do that. It is, in any event, specific to the UK, so that would not be to touch on international matters.
With a bit of imagination, we could get things to a different place. Ofcom could even require that there be little icons on the screen, so instead of having a dozen stations on the first screen that we see there could be—let us use an arbitrary number—26 of them, so we could get the new stations on the screen. There has been a lack of imagination.
The world is changing and will continue to change. I have just realised that it is 20 years since I first published a website. There is a lot happening and there is a lot more to happen. Let us ensure that there is a fair wind for this excellent local news initiative—for which I am sure there will be great demand—and that our local stations are prominent, so that the public can easily access and enjoy them.
12:55
Like others, I congratulate Joan McAlpine on securing the debate. I very much welcome the introduction of local TV, and I am delighted to see it come about. I have always been supportive of the benefits of local TV, and it is right, in the spirit of consensus that Joan McAlpine referred to, that we commend the UK Government for pursuing the matter. In particular, I take this opportunity to congratulate Rob Woodward and his team at STV on the achievements that they have already had, and on having the vision to back the introduction of local television in Scotland, which I think is wonderful.
That said, I share Joan McAlpine’s original disappointment that Edinburgh and Glasgow were the first recipients of local TV. I was a bit surprised when that announcement was made, for reasons that I will come to in a minute. I can understand it, however, given the populations of those two cities—my understanding is that there need to be around 100,000 people in the catchment area to make it work, at least at this point.
I look forward to the whole thing being rolled out further. I understand that Ayr is a possible option for the future. As a former Ayrshire man, I am keen to see that brought about—as I know that you are, Presiding Officer; you told me to say that, and I am happy to do so.
I go back to a rather more parochial note, and to the reason for my slight surprise at the announcement of Edinburgh and Glasgow as the first recipients of local TV. My enthusiasm for local TV is effectively reflected in the words of the Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, who said in August 2011:
“Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders are arguably the parts of Scotland most in need of local television.”
I took part in a parliamentary debate on the issue around that time, if I remember rightly, and I absolutely agreed with that point.
The situation in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway has improved somewhat of late, as we have effectively regained Borders Television, which had been removed from us. I acknowledge Chic Brodie’s recognition of that fact. Local need is now much better satisfied than it was in 2011. Nonetheless, the cabinet secretary’s statement that year was pertinent.
I bow to other members’ technical knowledge of electronic programming guide positioning, which is infinitely superior to mine. I can understand the concerns about the issue, but I do not think that we should get too desperately hung up about local TV’s position on the electronic programming guide. I have Sky television and I regularly tune into the BBC’s 24-hour news channel, which is on channel 503. What draws me to it is the quality of the programming. Although I understand the desirability of having a position of prominence, I would argue that, to a certain extent, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. If the quality of local television programming is good enough, people will manage to press two numbers rather than one on the zapper, if that is what it takes to get to their programme. If the attraction of watching the programme is strong enough, because of its quality, that issue will be overcome.
That said, I recognise the strength of the arguments for EPG prominence. If a local channel can be moved higher up the list, it most certainly should be.
I am pleased to have taken part in the debate, and I again congratulate Joan McAlpine on securing it.
12:58
I, too, thank my colleague Joan McAlpine for securing the debate.
I welcome the new STV local channels that are being launched in Glasgow and Edinburgh over the summer in conjunction with Glasgow Caledonian University and Edinburgh Napier University. Edinburgh TV and Glasgow TV are the only new Scottish channels announced so far, but I understand that Ofcom will be advertising licences later this year for the Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Falkirk and Inverness areas.
The channels are necessary because we see so little of Scotland and Scottish culture on the existing public sector broadcaster, the BBC. According to the BBC’s own management review, BBC Scotland’s local television original output for 2012-13 was 778 hours. That was at the same time that Scottish licence fee payers contributed £320 million to BBC coffers.
The new channels ETV and GTV will broadcast from 12 noon until midnight seven days a week. That means that each of them will broadcast a total of 4,368 hours a year, which is more than four times the total number of hours of local television that are broadcast by BBC Scotland.
It is even more remarkable that the stations will operate on a fully commercial business model, as they decided to reject the option of receiving funding from the BBC, which had hoped to purchase content from the Scottish channels and the UK-wide local TV network to the tune of £5 million per annum for three years.
STV Local has freed itself from having to provide the BBC with access to its content, which it hopes will be able to attract its own revenue. In order to attract that revenue, I understand that the new channels will provide a mix of local content and programming, which will include news, current affairs and live shows, as well as quality acquired and archived programming.
In developing the new channels, STV and its partners need to consider how they can address the totally inadequate level of broadcasting of programming on our arts, music, entertainment and comedy, on which BBC Scotland managed to broadcast only 36 hours of programming in the year to March 2013. There is hope that they might indeed do that, given that, at last year’s Edinburgh Napier media Monday event, Bobby Hain, director of channels at STV, stated:
“Securing the local TV licence for Edinburgh means we will be bringing relevant and engaging content to the capital on a brand new platform. This is an exciting opportunity and one we are looking forward to delivering in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University.”
We are not talking only about an opportunity to reflect our society on the wee screen, as the new channels will present opportunities to the students who attend the partner universities. Edinburgh Napier University students who study journalism will be given the opportunity to work and train in a live TV environment, while work experience will also be available to students who take other media courses. Edinburgh Napier has a track record of producing top journalism and media graduates, and I am sure that the students will prove invaluable to the community programming that is planned for ETV.
Despite the best efforts of STV and Edinburgh Napier, ETV and GTV will be successful only if they attract an audience and, as a result, advertising revenue. That is where the problem lies because, when the licence was awarded, Digital UK originally allocated the stations channel 45 on the Freeview platform. It has now reconsidered that decision and will move them to channel 23. Across the UK, the other local channels that produce programmes will broadcast on channel 8. Now that the BBC is taking BBC 3 off the air, surely the solution would be to move BBC Alba to channel 7, which would mean that ETV and GTV could be broadcast on channel 8 as well.
The alternative that is proposed for channel 7 is that it be used for BBC 1 +1, which by its very nature will be a repeat channel with no original content, and very little of its content will have emanated from Scotland. That is unacceptable and, if the proposal is allowed to go ahead unchanged, it will again highlight why broadcasting in Scotland should be regulated by the Scottish Parliament.
13:03
I join other members in congratulating Joan McAlpine on securing the debate and welcome the range of excellent speeches that have been made.
The subject of the debate is both important and timely. It is important because, between them, the two local television stations that will start broadcasting this year in Glasgow and Edinburgh will have a potential audience of some four fifths of Scotland’s population, and it is timely because, as we have heard, STV Glasgow will start broadcasting in just a few days’ time, on Monday 2 June. Like Ken Macintosh, I was not at the station’s launch—in my case, because I had been, literally, sent to Coventry—but I have genuine sympathy for Jim Murphy. I applauded Ken Macintosh’s mention of the horse standing on Jim Murphy’s foot only because I have seen him play football and know that anything that slows him down is probably a good thing.
As a member of the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow region—although the area that STV Glasgow will cover will extend beyond that region—I am particularly pleased that the new station is about to get under way.
After last week’s terrible news of the fire that ravaged the Mackintosh building, which is part of Glasgow School of Art, I reflected on how something that is small and local can have repercussions that are local and simultaneously national and international. I am grateful to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for its good work in tackling the blaze.
I am sure that the new STV Glasgow service will want to cover the journey to recovery of that Glasgow School of Art building. That is a good example of a story that can be given broadcast coverage in a lot more depth by a station such as STV Glasgow, which has an opportunity to bring a unique dimension to television broadcasting. I look forward to STV Glasgow beginning to broadcast next week and to STV Edinburgh following later in the year.
As we know and as many members have said, there is the possibility of further local television stations. The intention is to have television franchises in Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Falkirk and Inverness later this year and a start date in 2015 or 2016 is implied.
The Scottish Government has a bit of regret that the model of an English-language television channel for Scotland with local opt-outs, as recommended by the Scottish Broadcasting Commission in 2008 and endorsed unanimously by the Parliament, has not been followed. Nevertheless, the increased coverage that local television under the current model will offer is to be welcomed.
I am certainly keen for the new stations to prosper. From what I have seen of STV’s local coverage—from its STV Glasgow app, which is on my phone, through to its flagship political programme, “Scotland Tonight”, which has regionalised news—I think that it has stolen the march on local programming and that its stations will be a huge success.
As Alex Fergusson said, the biggest key to achieving success will be the quality of the programmes, which I am confident about. As I mentioned, STV has a strong record as a broadcaster and understands localism in news. However, when the stations are in their early phases and people do not quite know the level of quality, prominence in the EPG will be immensely important.
Programming for STV Glasgow will include a headline two-hour show called “The Riverside Show” from 6.30 pm each weeknight. Joan McAlpine described well the panoramic background to that. Other programming will reflect Scotland’s diversity—the channel will show the popular series of some years back, “Take the High Road”, and, for different communities in Glasgow and across Scotland, it will screen in Polish a recent series from Poland called “Days of Honour”, which is set during the second world war.
I believe that STV Glasgow has the capacity to attract audiences, but realistically—and especially when it starts up—doing that can at least be eased by having a relatively high position on the electronic programme guide. As Ken Macintosh said, that would accord with the basic principles that Ofcom has set for the EPG, which include prominence for public service broadcasters.
We share the dissatisfaction of all members in the chamber with the present channel slot of 23, although we recognise that movement in the correct direction has occurred, as Ken Macintosh said. We urge Digital UK and the powers that be to move further in that direction and give the stations the prominence that they deserve. In a previous motion, Joan McAlpine mentioned the opportunity that may well arise from the BBC executive’s intention to move BBC 3 to a purely online basis, which will free the channel 7 slot. As far back as May 2012, the Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs pressed the case for greater prominence for local television in Scotland with Digital UK, which allocates the EPG slots, and we will continue to make that case.
For the public, the case will be made above all by the programming that STV Glasgow and STV Edinburgh offer. It is a great model. Gordon MacDonald was right to emphasise that it will bring in universities and give students a break in broadcast media—I know many journalism students as friends, and they have struggled to get into that. Local television will give them that fantastic opportunity.
When all that is put together, I am in no doubt that the channels will fulfil the public service broadcasting mission to inform, educate and entertain. I look forward to experiencing that when STV Glasgow begins broadcasting on Monday. It might even have me on one of its shows—who knows?
I am sure that the minister’s comments will be noted. I thank all members for taking part in the debate.
13:10
Meeting suspended.
14:30
On resuming—