THE BBC is not trying to “game the numbers” by labelling productions as Scottish in order to hit Ofcom criteria, the corporation’s director-general has insisted – as he accepted that more Scottish staff need to be working on the flagship show The Traitors.
Tim Davie’s comments came as he was pushed on the BBC’s commissioning criteria by MSPs on Holyrood’s Culture Committee on Thursday morning.
It follows an intervention from director Peter Strachan, a board member of trade body Directors UK, who raised concerns about The Traitors – which he said was becoming a “shooting estate of a different kind” due to the number of roles filled by London-based staff.
Ofcom regulations mean that the BBC is obligated to ensure that “at least 8% of the hours of network programmes made in the United Kingdom are made in Scotland” each calendar year. The broadcaster counts The Traitors as Scottish for this purpose.
In order to qualify as made in Scotland, two of three Ofcom criteria must be met. These are that the production company must have “a substantive business and production base” in the country; at “least 70% of the production spend” must be in Scotland; and at “least 50% of the production talent (ie not on-screen talent) by cost must have their usual place of employment” in Scotland.
Hayley Valentine, the director of BBC Scotland, said that the broadcaster has 66 Scottish productions – although nine of them only hit one of those criteria. The others all hit at least two, she said.
Pressed on the numbers, BBC director-general Davie told MSPs he wanted them to improve.
“Do I want to see the numbers in Traitors improve? Yes, but I also want to see the investment in Scotland, and I want to see what that brings,” he said.
“I also want to see us build a sustainable product. We're all trying to do the same thing, but honestly, we need to look at this in the round in terms of what we're building as a functioning ecosystem.”
Davie further insisted that the BBC was not trying to give “an excuse”.
“We're not trying to game a number, we're not trying to game a number,” he said.
“I'm not interested in that. I'm not trying to get an excuse. I have nothing to excuse in that way. I have ambition to grow production in Scotland.
“I'm just being very transparent, I hope, which is nine of our 66 hit only one criteria.
“That criteria could be a base in Scotland. Now, bluntly, it could also mean it's shot elsewhere.
“The fact that The Traitors comes to Scotland and creates tourism, all those things, is good news, and we should celebrate it.
Davie suggested that The Traitors was but one of a “number of productions which we all agree are not where we want to be longer term in terms of deployment and spending and people”.
The director-general further said that his “intent is absolutely to move money out of London”.
“Hundreds of millions of pounds is coming out. Now, that is good news and it's smart, it's sensible.”
Davie said that in 2021 – the year after he took over as head of the BBC – 67% of licence fees collected in Scotland were spent in Scotland. “We're now at 99.6%,” he added.
