\n The same research also found that 80 per cent of episodes made for the BBC by those top producers were commissioned from London-headquartered companies.\n<\/p>\n
\n Traitors was filmed in Scotland\n<\/p>\n
\n The BBC<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n The briefing from David Smith, director of Screen Scotland which has been circulated to some MPs, warned that the current rules allow the BBC to \u201cfully comply\u201d with its Scottish production obligations \u201cwhile commissioning projects which provide limited employment in Scotland, have little economic impact within the Scottish economy and which do not directly support Scotland\u2019s creative economy\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n According to Screen Scotland, a so-called \u201csubstantive base\u201d \u201cneed not be the headquarters of the company, it need not be where the production team is based, and it can be staffed by as little as one person if they nominally fulfil the requisite roles.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n It accuses the current system of allowing the BBC to \u201cfully comply\u201d with its quotas while commissioning projects that provide \u201climited employment in Scotland\u201d, have \u201clittle economic impact\u201d and \u201cdo not directly support Scotland\u2019s creative economy\u201d .\n<\/p>\n \n At the centre of the row is the BBC\u2019s obligation to produce and spend outside London. Under its operating framework, the broadcaster must ensure a significant proportion of its network TV<\/a> output comes from the nations and regions, a policy designed to spread jobs and investment across the U But the rules governing how that is measured \u2014 overseen by Ofcom \u2014 allow productions to qualify as \u201cScottish\u201d if they meet just two out of three criteria covering spend, staffing and location of base.\n<\/p>\n \n That flexibility, designed to reflect the realities of modern TV production, is now at the heart of a growing industry storm.\n<\/p>\n \n The BBC itself has acknowledged the complexity of the system, noting that a programme can qualify as Scottish \u201csolely on account of the location of its production office\u201d \u2014 even if much of the budget is spent elsewhere.\n<\/p>\n \n Read More articles by Martin Williams\n<\/p>\n \n Scottish Enterprise arms summit role sparks backlash after Gaza emails<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n Scots regulator pushes non-drug dementia care amid sedative safety concerns<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n ScotGov\u2019s four-vessel award plan faces legal and workload concerns<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n The concerns have been raised by Screen Scotland, which is funded primarily through the Scottish Government<\/a> and the National Lottery, and has helped promote the nation as a filming destination for blockbuster productions ranging from Outlander to The Batman and Indiana Jones and and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.\n<\/p>\n \n The issue has become increasingly politically sensitive following scrutiny of BBC productions including The Traitors, filmed at Ardross Castle in the Highlands.\n<\/p>\n \n Questions have been raised at Westminster after concerns emerged over how many Scotland-based workers were actually employed on the hit reality series.\n<\/p>\n \n And one parliamentary committee asked Screen Scotland to give its assessment of the BBC\u2019s progress in supporting Scotland-based television professionals and increasing production spending in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n \n Mr Smith’s briefing has now intensified pressure on both the BBC and Ofcom ahead of negotiations over Charter Renewal \u2014 the process that determines the broadcaster\u2019s future responsibilities and public service obligations.\n<\/p>\n \n Mr Smith argued that the BBC\u2019s approach over the past decade has relied heavily on commissioning London-based suppliers before moving enough production activity to Scotland to satisfy Ofcom\u2019s rules.\n<\/p>\n \n \n The briefing cites research it commissioned from Oliver & Ohlbaum examining productions classified as Scottish between 2014 and 2022 found that 97 per cent of episodes counting as Scottish produced by the top qualifying companies were commissioned either by the BBC or Channel 4.\n<\/p>\n \n But Screen Scotland argues the BBC and Channel 4 adopted sharply different approaches.\n<\/p>\n \n While three of the four companies most heavily used by Channel 4 were formed and headquartered in Scotland, only two of the 11 major suppliers used by the BBC were Scottish-based firms.\n<\/p>\n \n The memo claims that the approach has helped reinforce London\u2019s dominance over the UK television industry.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cThis approach to BBC commissioning against its Out of London quotas was not restricted to the BBC\u2019s commissioning against its Scottish output quotas, and it is a major factor in why London remains the UK\u2019s only IP rich TV\/media cluster of scale in 2026,\u201d Mr Smith said. The BBC itself has publicly acknowledged the complexity of the system.\n<\/p>\n \n In a memo published last year, the broadcaster said: \u201cOfcom\u2019s criteria for what counts as an \u2018out of London\u2019 production is complex.\u201d BBC statement on regional production rules The BBC added that productions can qualify through different combinations of spending, staffing and production-office location, and acknowledged that \u201cin a small number of cases\u201d a programme could be categorised as Scottish \u201csolely on account of the location of its production office\u201d. The corporation has also pledged to strengthen local spending requirements by ensuring qualifying regional productions invest at least 70 per cent of their budgets locally.\n<\/p>\n \n But Mr Smith argued that still leaves the BBC free to focus on London-based suppliers.\n<\/p>\n \n \u201cOur concern has long been the lack of BBC origination in Scotland against its Scottish output quotas,\u201d the briefing states.\n<\/p>\n \n It adds that Screen Scotland hopes the BBC will focus more on \u201cthe creative origination of its Scottish qualifying output from within Scotland, rather than concentrating its efforts on displaced production from London-based suppliers.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n The document also argues that the concentration of commissioning power and senior management roles in London is \u201climiting UK-wide creative sector growth\u201d and \u201cpreventing the development of IP-rich creative clusters elsewhere\u201d.\n<\/p>\n \n One industry insider said: “The real issue here is not whether the BBC has technically broken any rules \u2014 but whether the rules themselves have drifted so far from their original purpose that they no longer deliver meaningful economic benefit to Scotland.\n<\/p>\n \n “Ofcom\u2019s regional production system was designed to decentralise the UK television industry and spread jobs, spending and creative power beyond London. But it is clear that broadcasters can satisfy those requirements in a highly technical way while still concentrating commissioning power, ownership and long-term value in the capital.\n<\/p>\n \n “There is a big difference between productions being filmed in Scotland and Scotland developing a self-sustaining television industry with long-term economic and creative power.”\n<\/p>\n \n The remarks land at a crucial moment for the broadcaster with the BBC\u2019s Royal Charter currently under review, opening the door to major changes in how the corporation operates.\n<\/p>\n \n At the same time, ministers have repeatedly pledged to spread economic growth beyond London and strengthen creative industries across the nations and regions.\n<\/p>\n \n A BBC Scotland<\/a> spokesman said: “Our commissioning strategy has been a major driver of the development of the television production sector in Scotland. Powered by around \u00a31bn of BBC investment in network production in Scotland since 2014, we have made programmes loved by audiences, such as Shetland<\/a> and Vigil, with new dramas including Counsels, chronicling the lives of young lawyers, the comic thriller, Grams, and a second series of Rebus, all set to air in the near future.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n “The quality\u00a0and\u00a0economic value of titles such as these were not as obvious\u00a0in the\u00a0O&O\u00a0research, as it was focused\u00a0more\u00a0on the number of episodes produced\u00a0rather than the value of them to Scotland. Our\u00a0funding\u00a0of network productions in Scotland\u00a0has helped the creation of hundreds of jobs\u00a0and\u00a0boosted inward investment which has led to overall growth in the sector.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It can be revealed that under Ofcom rules, productions can qualify as Scottish without most spending or staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-593946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}(Image: BBC)\n<\/p>\n