ITC acts on Grampian complaints

SMG is Scotland's biggest media company

The Independent Television Commission has described as "unacceptable" the Scottish Media Group's operation of the Grampian TV licence.

The ITC has published its findings on a number of complaints from viewers, members of the Scottish Parliament, MPs and two trade unions.

The commission has insisted on more programming for viewers in Grampian's franchise area, which covers the north of Scotland.

SMG managing director, Donald Emslie, said he was pleased that neither the quantity or quality of Grampian programming was being questioned.

The Aberdeen-based broadcaster was taken over three year by SMG, whose head offices are in Glasgow.

Grampian TV is based in Aberdeen

The ITC has decided Grampian's regional output over the past two years has shown "a substantial reduction" of peak-time programmes of special interest to Grampian viewers.

Some programmes had been moved to less accessible time slots, the commission noted, while others had been replaced by co-productions.

Describing the changes as "not acceptable", a spokesman said: "Co-productions have a place in the schedule, particularly all Scotland co-productions, and a substantial increase in co-productions made in Aberdeen since the acquisition of Grampian by SMG is welcome.

"But there is a downside. Co-productions may attract additional resources, but at the expense of lessening their specific regional appeal, in this case to north of Scotland viewers.

"They cannot therefore substitute for the licence requirement that Grampian must itself produce, and commission from north of Scotland independents, a range of programmes of special appeal to Grampian viewers."

High Road 'label'

Under the agreement signed by SMG and the ITC in 1997, Grampian is allowed to transmit 50 minutes of co-produced programmes each week. The other co-producer is normally Scottish Television.

One of the major changes is that SMG will no longer be allowed to caption the popular Scottish soap, High Road, as a co-production.

The ITC said: "Despite the popularity of High Road in the Grampian region, the ITC feels that there is inadequate Grampian involvement in the production for it to qualify as a regional programme."

Among the measures to strengthen Grampian-originated programming, are two peak-time half-hour slots on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings.

Other points covered by the ITC include:

• A further regional half-hour slot of Gaelic programmes on Sunday evenings

• The 2230 slot used for local programmes will consist mainly of co-productions but will also include some Grampian only material

• Grampian has assured the ITC that it will maintain a staffing structure covering all the necessary grades and skills needed to produce its own programmes without importing staff

• Captions at the end of programmes will clearly reflect the origin of the production

• The ITC will commission independent research in the Grampian transmission area using a sample of 1,000 viewers to ascertain viewer response to Grampian output

The spokesman added: "The ITC will take a higher profile in the Grampian transmission area until such time as we are assured that the above measures are working effectively and to the benefit of north of Scotland viewers.

"The ITC will monitor the full range of Grampian's output, rather than a selective portion for at least the next six months."

Aberdeen Central MP, Frank Doran, said the ITC had imposed "very serious conditions on Grampian Television, perhaps unprecedented in the UK".