I’ve just been contacted by a recently-retired senior BBC England staff member to tell me confidentially of the collapse in audiences for BBC Scotland’s two flagship news programmes. Reporting Scotland’s audience has fallen from around 500 000 in 2014 to less than 200 000 while Good Morning Scotland’s audience is now less than 40 000.
According to my source these figures are evidence that even confirmed NO voters have become so depressed by the negative fear-based coverage on these two programmes that they cannot bear to watch.
It’s been coming for some time: BBC audience study shows Scottish viewers are most critical of all
It is possible that my source is unreliable. If so, BBC Scotland will hopefully provide the figures they have.
Talking-up Scotland 
About the BBC Scotland, Mr Robertson; too good to be true? I hope it is and furthermore, I hope it gets worse.
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I await their correction
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You may be waiting a long time. Apparently listening figures are copyright so I doubt if they will release them. An organisation called RAJAR, jointly owned by the BBC, collects listening figures using listening diaries but doesn’t supply any data to the public. Just as well we don’t fund the BBC then.
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I have to ask why, if the information was given to you confidentially, you are spreading it all over Twitter?
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For information
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They wanted to remain anonymous. They wanted me to share it.
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WHEN YOU RECEIVE SUCH SHOCKING DATA THAT PROVING THAT OUR TV LIC3NCE PAYMENTS ARE BEING ALLOCATED
TO Support English productions and manipulate the MYTH that scottish productions are BEING COVERED
Or so said mr Hall
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“An independent, impartial report has suggested”
Critics say it’s because they are shite,
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shock news in your case means “fake news”… and you’re the academic “media analyst”? What a clown.
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If it’s fake, surely they’ll provide the true figures?
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Is your surname Bird, by any chance?
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😂😂😂👍🏻
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I think your getting confused Jackie it’s the Brutish Bullshitting Corporation that does the FAKE NEWS it’s that bad that even the TRUMPET won’t have anything to do with them , their lickspittal Sarah even had to LIE about waiting times to rubbish our SNHS and Scotland . Do you believe ANYTHING Sarah Smith or Nick ( tory )Robinson says
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It is very sad and digusting that all these unionists in the bbc are ruining Scotland’s broadcasting.
If only they would just be honest truthful and they might get better viewing and listening.
Just do your day job and REPORT
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The BBC annual reports detail, somewhere, the number of licence payers in Scotland. While there is not a 1:1 relationship between households:licences, think student halls of residence, it is probably near enough. There are scottish government figures somewhere detaling the number of households in Scotland – needed for rates I suppose. When I last looked, the percentage of households with licences declined by one percentage point 2013/14 to 2014/15. I don’t imagine the trend reversed 2015/16.
I am using a wee tablet thing or I would go and hunt out the data for you.
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Thanks. Having a licence might just be for the nice nature progs?
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I agree, I have a licence but never watch any of the news channels. Prefer to get my news online from the alternate media, which is a damn sight more trustworthy.
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Thanks for your additional evidence.
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THAT IS THE INJUSTICE
WE MUST BUY A TV LICENCE TO SUPPORT ONE 1 CHANNEL THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE UNBIASED
IF THEY’RE NOT FULFILLING THEIR LEGAL OBLIGATIONS WHY SHOULD PEOPLE BE PRESCUTED BY A CHEATING ORGANISATION
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Phew thought itvwis SNP BAD NOO IT BBCBAD
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The nice nature progscare certainly not from the production directors at PATHETIC QUAY
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They are not reporting Scotland but a version of how they would like it to be. Propaganda is a lost art.
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Yes, they’re getting so obvious, more and more must see through it especially if they watch BBC at 6 first and see the state of NHS England.
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I agree John BBc to me means ” British Bullshit Conservatives”.
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True
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Propaganda is alive and well, doubt this, at your own peril.
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Can this and all comments ,facts and figures be sent to board of Governers,Ofcom And any who will listen.
These facts are a SYMPTOM OF THE TOTAL DISTRUST
Now leveled at an organisation who are devaluing this so called Scottish Broadcaster.
Mr Hall should call an immediate meeting to sort this undermining of Scotlands National Broadcaster
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It’s been coming for some time: BBC audience study shows Scottish viewers are most critical of all
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/scotland-blog/2016/may/20/bbc-audience-study-shows-scottish-viewers-are-most-critical-of-all
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I am one of the 95% of the population who don’t watch Reporting Scotland, not because of the bias but because of the cloyingly twee presentation. Long ago my parents used to watch North Tonight on Grampian TV which was awful, and in a smugly superior way I was proud to avoid it and watch Reporting Scotland instead. Bring back North Tonight!
The contrast between the rigorous investigation carried out by the likes of BR in Bavaria and RTE in Ireland, and the parish pump tedium on BBC Scotland is dramatic. BBC Alba’s An Là manages to convey a seriousness and respect for the ausience than Reporting Scotland has lacked for years.
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Agreed
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> parish pump tedium
In that respect, Reporting Scotland is no different from ‘South Today’ or any of the other regional news programmes. You or I might want a national TV news service in Scotland, but what you get is regional. Sally Magnusson is just as parochial as Sally Taylor. Our problem is expecting anything better from the BBC.
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The Scottish Assessors Association website has the number of households broken down by council and council tax band
https://saa.gov.uk/general_statistics.php?&REPORT_NAME=ct_band#report_list
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Thanks for this
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SAA ARE ONLY WORKING ON FACTS AND FIGURES SUPPLIED BY COUNCILS
So they might be inaccurate dont you think!!!!!!
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They specialise in reporting the spun lies in the press, thus giving them traction with a bigger audience than their tiny sales. Good to know that the radio audience is just as miniscule.
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If my source is wrong maybe they’ll come out?
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No surprise. My wife and I don’t bother with Good Morning Scotland at all and only occasionally follow reporting Scotland but really just to check if their weather forecast chimes with our online weather app. When I’m stupid enough to tune into Reporting Scotland, I’m scunnered within a couple of minutes and have to change channel .
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It’s tough to watch.
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DOES THAT MEAN WE GETVA REBATE BASED ON WASTAGE
NAE WUNNER GARY SOUNDS WORRIED (deer in the headlights) AT EVERY INTERVIEW
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Maybe they’ll come out?
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Way-back in my naive pre-fake-news days, I got so sick of reading the Daily Record that I stopped buying it. Must’ve been around the time Ewan Bain passed, and the Record – copying The Sun – thought it was somehow ‘in the public interest’ to publish sensational details of pop-star Madonna’s rear-seat dalliances with ‘young Hispanic men with twelve-inch penises’ (I shit you not) – children were exposed to that unecessary tripe.
It was also during that time they deemed it a brilliant idea – again copying The Sun – to bombard Scots with daily news about Lady Diana (David Beckham polluted us later) until we were completely turned-off by Diana – nae-hermm tae the lassie. Anyway, I could no longer justify buying a rag that, up until that point, had only Angus Og as a good reason to spend my money on their rubbish. I stopped buying that publication.
Then some time passed and I discovered the Daily Mail, I thought; ‘Now that’s a mature read from clever contributors and professional writers, writing for a thinking individual’.. and I took to purchasing that rag.
Apart from being pro-independence, I was never really that political, considering politics as a strange pleasure for City-types and, well, politicians. However I was slowly transformed from being apolitical and not very passionate into someone with an opinion, someone who cared about what goes on in our country – thanks to the Daily Mail. The transformation came about when it dawned on me that the Daily Mail constantly and persistently used their powerful position to denigrate, vehemently, everything Labour stood for. Hardly a day went-by when they had vicious HEADLINES accompanied by a ‘vile’ diatribe about this-and-that-Labour. Phew… “They never let-up, do they?” I thought. But I would see it that way, wouldn’t I? I mean, I was Labour through-and-through? Actually, no. I’d always and without fail, voted SNP – and that was the essence of the objectivity of my personal disgust. I was able to see what the Daily Mail was up to without being the target, the wronged individual. I wasn’t a Labour sympathiser, I just thought it was cowardly, not professional, to attack from such a responsible position. I was a bit naive, I suppose..
Sickened once more, I ceased buying that publication, but this time I stopped buying, not because of banality, but because of constant bias and carping – no wonder folk don’t buy newspapers!
I’ve only recently (occasionally) bought a newspaper again, The National, because they’re on our side…
I’m completely sick once more, and confused, because I’m concerned that buying The National means ‘The Herald’ will have the means to behave like The Daily Mail – only it’s not Labour they’re attacking but ‘us’. Am I helping to finance that? Would The Herald sink if I wasn’t patronising it? Would their demise send a strong message to all Scottish publications? Wouldn’t that be a headline?
‘HERALD FOLDS ON BACK OF ANTI-INDEPENDENCE STANCE’
Yes, The National does give us a voice, and we should be grateful for that voice. But as in a game of Chess, if I lose my Bishop, a sacrifice, for my opponent’s Queen, would the end-game be to my advantage?
Back to my original point. The BBC remind me of The Daily Mail: if they keep banging Scots’ heads against a wall about ‘the bloody SNP’, those Scots will eventually become fed-up hearing the constant bias and carping – and they’ll stop listening.
Vote SNP in the Scottish Council Elections on May 4th
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Thanks for these interesting and true comments.
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Btw, Excellent stuff, Prof!
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Thanks
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OOOOOONNNNN THAT MEANS THURS NAEBIDI LISTENING OR WATCHIN THUM BIASED REPORTS
THAT MIGHT MAKE DONNANLDA SIT UP
A ONCE WELL RESPECTED NEWS SERVICE RDUCED TO A LAUGHING STOCK IN MEDIA TERMS
NEARLY AS BAD AS SCOTSMAN CIRCULATION WHICH IS BEIN HIGHLIGHTED ON BBC 2 TONITE
200 YEARS AND NOW THEY GO DOON THE DRAIN
WHY DID THIS APPEN EH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I expect viewing figures will decrease further in the coming months as the “we speak” policy (the voice of London) takes effect. It matters not to the corporation that the vast bulk of Scots are dissatisfied with the mind manipulating propaganda being force fed to viewers day and night.
Judging the present circumstance I am reminded of Geldorf’s offensive public announcement at the time of the much criticised “Band Aid” appeal and subsequent provision of aid to Ethiopia.. Just give me your f*****g money.
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Good quote
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In my last few years as Professor of Media Politics, several contacts in other universities had told me of anecdotal evidence that audiences for these two programmes were collapsing because of a massive switch to online news agencies, an increasing distrust of all MSM by younger audiences and a spreading distaste amongst people of all political persuasions for the massive negativity in coverage. I understand perceived hostility in BBC reporting to the Conservative Party in England is having similar effects. BBC is oif course not subject to the FoI act. As a retired freelance researcher, neither am I. My source only provided a verbal recollection of the information so it’s not entirely reliable. If it’s wrong, BBC can tell us why.
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I had an interesting conversation with two of my grandsons recently, both teenagers, one of whom voted Yes in 2014, the other will get his first vote in this year’s council elections.
Cutting a long story short, it turned out that neither of them has ever bought a newspaper, watches or listens to M.S.M news, but instead get all their information from the internet. They didn’t see anything unusual in this, and said that most of their pals did the same. So no wonder the B.B.C, and I bet S.T.V/I.T.V/Sky News viewing figures are collapsing. And of course, we all too aware of the, hoped for, demise of the print media.
I bring this up because of an article written by the excellent James Kelly, when he described the methodology of the polling companies use when collecting peoples views, in this case, on the support for Scottish Independence. Apparently, on occasions, this is done by calling voters on a landline. Now from what I gather from my grandchildren, landlines are for old fogeys like me, they are all in the digital age, and it’s mobiles or tablets all the way.
So could it be that the polls are wrong, and with this coming of age generation, the majority for independence is much greater? Just thinking.
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That is exactly how we should play the INDY 2campaign in 2018 (not 2017) thats a squib thrown in by THE RAGS AN GOGGLEBOXES NOT TODAYS PEOPLE.
USE THE SOCIAL MEDIA
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Thanks for this useful addition.
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Couldn’t the BBC just lie about their audience figures, how would we know their validity.
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Don’t think they can. That’s why they won’t?
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You really are a sham, “Retired professor”. You print a fake story, then instigate debate about it as if it were true, meanwhile lecturing “the media” about their failure to present analysis and fact based on research. You should be ashamed of yourself, but since you obviously censor comments you don’t like your audience will never know (viz. my previous attempt to comment on this thread). Shameful behaviour from a supposed “expert”.
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This and your previous comment are up on the site for all to see. I never censor. Why don’t BBC release the viewing figures do you think?
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Including your nasty turns of phrase – clown? sham? I’m honestly reporting what I was told.
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Wait a minute, Jackie. Are you Jackie Bird?
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My earlier comment was “awaiting moderation” a heck of a long time… So, by “reporting what I was told”, you mean repeating what somebody is alleged to have said. No names, no evidence. In fact, precisely the sort of reporting you criticise. I am frankly amazed at the unchecked statements you make here, Mr Robertson, given that people (including me, in the past) have assumed that your criticisms are based on research and proper analysis. You do not seem to live up to the high standards you expect of other academics, and I say that on the basis of several of your items lately.Surely your criticism of organisations is diluted by lapses such as this, can you not see that point?
And no I’m not Jackie Bird.
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I agree you could see it as a lapse but it seemed like a reasonable way to flush them out. Why are they allowed to hide the figures when we pay for the service?
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Am I still a clown?
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I say that on the basis of several of your items lately – such as?
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John can I ask that you don’t respond to the SnarkY comments , as I’m sure you are aware that the SIU ers are getting annoyed and frustrated that they are being exposed and outed . Your site is an annoyance to them as you highlight the positive messages of Scotland and the Scots and you expose the lies and deceit of the MSM utilised by them to undermine and denigrate . Keep on doing what you’re doing as the vast majority of visitors enjoy and await your next destruction of their lies
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Such as your extremely lazy and misleading assumptions that any story even vaguely critical of health / education in Scotland is automatically “antiNSP” “anti Government” or “pro Union” and you categorise them accordingly and quite subjectively.Fair enough – it’s your wee blog – but please don’t pretend this is as a result of some impartial judgement on your part – it’s your interpretation, your prejudice.
As for posting a load of baloney on this blog and then demanding the BBC responds, it smacks of either high handed arrogance, or delusion. You present yourself as an objective academic when you are nothing of the kind. You don’t like being called “a clown” but you instantly make a joke about someone’s first name, and that’s OK. Pathetic.
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HOW CAN THE 1.9millin+ ASK FOR A REBATE, A CONTRACT IS A CONTRACT
ANDCTHEY ARE FAILING TO PROVIDE WHAT IS PAID FOR
ANY LAWYERS IN THE CROWD
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Who is this person were they just back from tea and cakes with Bbc boffins
They must be lacing the tea with something it warping hur mind set
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OK Jackie. Too offensive for my health. Don’t send any more. I won’t approve them.
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Are we seeing a scenario where the smaller the BBC viewers/ listeners become, the more frequent and obvious their bias will become? What are their options? Change direction and give balanced view of Scottish politics/ current affairs? or finnish what tbey started and fight to the last man?
I believe they will take the latter and they are now aware that their organisation as well as the UK are in its final years of existence.
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I agree with your reading of it.
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And I bet she does not get the SAME WAGE AS HER MALE BOSSES
GOOD OLE BEEB EH!!!!!!!!!!!!
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O Joy! Great news!
I hope your informant is correct. I also hope the viewing and listening figures drop much, much further till they disappear from our screens and radios altogether.
Looking forward to an independent Scotland with its own broadcast media, in particular, our own international and national news broadcast from home turf by impartial broadcasters and presenters. Now wouldn’t that be a complete departure from our current vile set up?
I would even start paying a licence fee for that.
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Reblogged this on scottishactivist0.
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Surely this is a sacking matter.
Donalda must go, no wait, stay.
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Why has this one resurfaced after a year? They still haven’t contradicted my rumoured figures?
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Delighted to read that they are failing in viewing /listening figures – they are certainly failing in impartiality , accuracy and integrity . I look forward to the utterly discredited bunch being removed and replaced by a new Scottish broadcaster.
Of course there is http://www.trulyscottishtv.com well worth a visit and bristling with pride in Scotland as opposed to the detrimental ,depressing and downright devious current mob.
I don’t know who said it but those in the SMS should tak tent , ‘ when trust has gone , like the soul to the body it never returns’
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