\n Yet still it is not enough. Some 2,000 job losses are expected. At the corporation\u2019s Scottish HQ in Glasgow, 60 of its 350 staff have to go. One staffer says morale is \u201clong past rock bottom\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n What is a D-G to do?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Answers might arrive at 11 am on Wednesday 7 October. According to a note seen by The Herald, that is when new director-general Matt Brittin is to hold an \u201call-colleague call\u201d with staff. In a special live broadcast from the Radio Theatre<\/a> in London, the former Google executive promises to \u201cshare more about our plans to transform the BBC for the future\u201d.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Included in those plans could be the closure of the BBC Scotland<\/a> channel. Founded just seven years ago, it costs \u00a342 million a year to run, yet only 12% of people in Scotland watch it, according to the BBC\u2019s 2025\/6 annual report and accounts.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n The ground was prepared for such an announcement in August when Brittin, speaking at the Edinburgh<\/a> TV<\/a> Festival, declined to rule out such a move when asked by The Herald. Last month, he told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that changing viewer habits \u201cmay well mean\u201d some channels would close. \u201cWe won\u2019t guarantee any programme or any channel will exist forever,\u201d he said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n While closing the channel and moving programmes online might make financial sense, politically it is fraught with danger. So much so that BBC executives will approach even the possibility with extreme caution.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Scotland is the only UK nation with its own standalone television channel with its own schedule, and its own pot of money to commission programmes. That is a big deal. If it goes, so do the hopes of BBC Wales and Northern Ireland of having the same.\n<\/p>\n \n Read more\n<\/p>\n \n Coming on top of the loss of popular presenters at BBC Radio Scotland and what critics see as its increasing commercialisation, such a move would add to the sense of upheaval and uncertainty.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n To those who know its history, the BBC Scotland channel has always been a compromise. Instead of handing Scotland its own hour of primetime national and international news in a Scottish Six, it was given a whole sandbox to play in. The size of that was drastically reduced when The Nine was cut. Since then it has been mostly downhill with fewer original programmes showing and more repeats.\n<\/p>\n \n Now, we should pause here for a note of caution. If I had a pound for every time someone told me the end of BBC Scotland was about to be announced, I could pay your licence fee and mine and still have change for an Apple TV subscription.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n It is entirely possible that reports of the channel\u2019s demise have been greatly exaggerated or are just plain wrong. The same was said about Newsnight being axed.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n But the subject needs to be addressed at some point. If you were losing your job in Cardiff or London, wouldn\u2019t you want to know why the corporation was spending \u00a342 million a year on a rarely watched channel?\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n For critics of the channel, its closure will be no great loss. Others will see it as a political snub, the kind of thing that would not happen if Scotland had more control over broadcasting.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n For the majority, life will go on as before. To answer that famous referendum question, yes, you will be able to see EastEnders. Even so, the change would affect viewing habits.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Programmes will go online or somewhere else that people can find them. That means iPlayer in the main, but it could also mean BBC One Scotland, BBC network channels and the BBC website.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n The difference is that there will no longer be a channel 9, \u201cBBC Scotland\u201d, on your electronic programme guide. Instead, you will have to go to BBC iPlayer, find the Scotland section, and browse for what you want to watch.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n In short, BBC Scotland will still be around in spirit, but its shows will be elsewhere. It sounds like when parents tell very young children that old Yella has moved to a lovely farm a long way away.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Will people see the move as a mere change to how programmes are accessed or something more? Viewers are remarkably adept at adapting to new systems. Not everyone, however, has a television connected to broadband. Elderly viewers or those with poor connectivity already feel excluded.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n It is the bigger picture that will concern some. Changes presented as minor today could have major implications in time.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n Losing the channel would be a blow to Scotland\u2019s status within the BBC. Without it, Scotland would become just one of the crowd again, competing for attention from London.\n<\/p>\n \n Though it would keep a separate budget, there could be pressure from London for everyone to pay into a central kitty to help fund ever more expensive programmes. Less money spent here means harder times for Scottish production companies, some of which may not survive.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n It needs saying, too, that if the BBC Scotland channel goes, it is not coming back. Such is the law of the media jungle.\n<\/p>\n \n For all these reasons and more, Matt Brittin\u2019s presentation tomorrow should draw record numbers of staff. They deserve clarity, as do the licence fee payers and politicians around the UK. Kicking the can down the road again is one repeat we could all do without.\n<\/p>\n