Almost 50,000 Scottish homes stopped paying the BBC licence fee over the last year.
It seems that the perfect storm is brewing at the state broadcaster with reality arriving on a number of fronts.
During the World Cup Finals in the summer the BBC had more presenters and pundits than all other Scottish media outlets combined.
Tom English, Kenny Macintyre, Alasdair Lamont and Liam McLeod led the presenting team. Neil McCann, James McFadden and Leeann Crichton. Dishwater doesn’t come any duller
Behind the scenes there was an army of producers and technicians putting programmes together.
In July The National highlighted the culture inside the Sports Department at BBC Scotland:
Questions were raised after Tom Connor, an executive sport editor at BBC Scotland, was pictured in Times Square with other members of the broadcaster’s Scottish team.
A senior insider with knowledge of BBC Scotland’s sports operations questioned the reasoning behind sending Connor, suggesting his job would not have required him to be on location in New York.
“Tom is the original freeloader,” the insider said.
“He was always on trips hanging around when it was perfectly obvious he didn’t need to be there.”
Warning over an exodus of talent from the BBC in Scotland as top presenter quits https://t.co/kme76V1xBR
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) October 12, 2026
Of Macintyre being surrounded by his Ibrox mates in a studio to drool over problems at Celtic.
Andy Halliday seems to be in demand with commercial operators but no one wants to hear Ryan Stevenson, Richard Forster or a presenter with the charisma bypass of Steven Thompson.
BBC SCOTLAND- WHAT IS THE POINT?
As the BBC continues to lose sporting events and younger audiences pay for digital content the idea of paying what is effectively a BBC tax is almost over.
It seems that every week a well paid presenter is leaving the BBC, so far in Sport only Edinburgh based Brian McLaughlin is leaving the pay-roll.
The presenter’s shock exit comes as the BBC tries to save £500million, with around 2,000 jobs in the firing line across the UK.
The future of the BBC Scotland channel also faces uncertainty, amid revelations nearly 50,000 Scots stopped paying their TV licence fee over the past year.
Former BBC Scotland business and economy editor Douglas Fraser blasted the Beeb for the sweeping cuts, which will see employee morale vanish along with a raft of famous faces.
In a Substack post, Mr Fraser wrote: “Uncertainty is high: morale is low. Nine people are senior presenters at present. When the music stops, there will be seven seats left”
Down the years BBC Scotland has consistently lost out on Scottish sporting events.
Currently their live content consists of Championship matches on a Friday night, second choice Scottish Cup tie to Premier Sports and Scotland’s Nations League matches.
Premier Sports won the rights for the secondary live package of SPFL Premiership matches.
Bearing in mind the infrastructure and staff of BBC Scotland that package should easily have been within range for the state broadcaster.
As well as hours of radio coverage and three weekend TV shows BBC Scotland has extensive online content.
Almost as dire a financial situation as the daily Record finds itself in having to offload sport scoops in particular…regularly ?
Mind you on the last count there are around a dozen print and digital sport scoops still being employed by the rag ! Twelve hacks to cover tiny Scottish football plus freelancers aplenty .
The current affairs and all other subject reporters who are left must be wondering why so many are required for the football and so few for the other departments ?
At the last count the Record sent over 5 scoops to cover the WC 10 days in advance of the tournament without even an interview or podcast from the Scotland camp ? What was the point apart from it being a jolly for certain scoops ? So the paper does have a decent credit card facility for certain things ? Absolutely gripping …..
Lol,50,000 have stopped paying a tax to watch free TV,quite surprised it’s as low as that.
I wouldn’t give any of those James Hunts a wave down at the beach.
Pacific Quay is full of ponces.
That’s lovely news that they’re being made unemployed…
Well I ain’t aiding and abetting them for sure !
Won’t be long now till big Tom is back on the streets of Limerick with a backpack looking for a start but got bad news for him, there’s no hun leaning media or want to be Sevco fans here and rugby has moved on so opportunities is limited essentially if the Independent tells him to sling his hook…..welcome home Tom the hun..