Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Scotland has announced its support for top-up funding to sustain the plurality of news in Scotland.

The board has said that funding should be made available in order to support an alternative news service to the one provided by BBC Scotland, which will be good news to STV which has urged the Scottish Government to back its regional news coverage.

The Advisory Committee came to the conclusion as a response to a Department for Culture, Media and Sport consultation on delivering TV news in the nations and regions.

One measure set out earlier this year in the Government’s Digital Britain White Paper was the proposal for the creation of an independently funded news consortia. The Government intends to tried this scheme on a pilot basis in Scotland, Wales and one English region before 2012 with a national roll out aimed for the following year and could be made up of existing television news providers, newspaper groups or other newsgathering agencies.

This would be funded by competitive tender which could be chosen against a range of public criteria, including the ability to achieve the reach, editorial standards and overall quality of current Channel three regional productions.

Professor Philip Schlesinger, chair of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Scotland said: “If the UK government decides to shore up market failure with public money, we need to be sure that this is well spent and does not open the door to raiding the Licence Fee on an increasing scale. It should be a one-off. And we need to look at the effects.”

Despite this support, in a separate response, the Advisory Committee has also warned against allowed media owners to become too dominant.

In its Media Ownership Rules Review, Ofcom stated: “in Scotland a single owner of the main agenda-setting quality press (The Herald and The Scotsman) might also be able to control all the radio services and perhaps even new local TV stations as a result of only one or two mergers or takeovers. This is not in the public interest."

Update:

A spokesperson for STV said that it was 'pleased'  that the Advisory Committee for Scotland recognises the need for plurality of news services in Scotland. 

"We welcome their support for top-up funding in this area, and in particular their reference to the quality criteria, which Ofcom has previously recognised STV delivers.

“STV is absolutely committed to continued provision of high quality news for viewers across Scotland and is currently looking at ambitious proposals to take STV news in Scotland to the next level, providing strong competition to the BBC and further increasing consumer choice.”