BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Scottish independence – the dilemma

Image: BBC

The referendum on Scottish independence is approaching fast – too fast, perhaps, to answer all the important questions it raises. One of the trickier issues is the one surrounding the BBC, that is, the British Broadcasting Corporation. Is it possible that a Yes vote would deprive Scotland not just of the pound, not just of free trade of its precious North Sea oil and gas with the EU; but might Scotland also have Dr Who (made in Wales) and Strictly (England) wrenched from its desperate grasp? This oft-quoted example may err on the ridiculous, but it does illustrate an important point. The BBC is an enormous UK-wide institution, the strength of which undoubtedly lies in its sheer size and reach, and its leviathan budget.

The current allowance allocated to BBC Scotland is £200m, but is likely to fall in 2016 to £175m. The Scottish share of the license fee, however, is £320m – Scotland is being short-changed. The SNP’s plan is this: break away from the BBC to establish the SBS (Scottish Broadcasting Service), which would run on the Scottish license fees, plus a government subsidy that would amount to a corpulent £345m – effectively double the predicted budget for 2016. Double the budget, twice the results, right? Wrong. BBC Scotland currently supplies only 7.6% of the BBC’s total production output (figure from 2012). The other 92.4% of programming comes from across the UK, mainly England. The doubled SBS budget would therefore provide only 15.2% of the programming that Scots are used to through the UK-wide BBC. The SNP have this covered, they say. They will broker a deal with the BBC, in which Scots provide the BBC with programmes made by SBS, in exchange for free access to the full BBC service available to the rest of the UK. Such a deal seems unlikely, given the recent all-or-nothing stance in England: if they won’t get the pound, is it likely they’ll get the BBC?

Donald Runnicles rehearsing the BBC SSO                      Image: Telegraph

 One of the most crucial (and oft-neglected) BBC departments is its orchestral sector. Most of the music you hear on BBC programming has been recorded by BBC orchestras, which are funded by your license fee. These orchestras are, you’ll be pleased to know, remarkably cost-efficient. BBC orchestras’ budgets vary, but they average out at £6.1m each, per year, compared to the £9.7m independent orchestras cost to run on average. The reasons are these:

• Their time spent giving public concerts is relatively small, against time spent in the recording studio. This means less money spent on venues and advertising.
• Their money comes from the license fee, so no need to hire fundraisers.
• Admin teams are lean, sharing duties between departments and across the UK.
• They pay their chief execs far less than independent orchestras.

Undoubtedly, the close relationship between the various BBC orchestras reduces everyone’s costs.

The SNP’s proposed budget for the SBS has apparently not taken into account the running of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO), one of Britain’s finest. Admin staff would have to increase, bringing the average 17 full time employees in a BBC orchestra closer to the standard 31 in comparable independent orchestras. Player recruitment would certainly become harder: as soon as Scotland is a ‘foreign’ country with a border to navigate, the free movement of orchestral performers around the UK is bound to suffer. The SBS SSO – the catchy acronym it would, presumably, adopt – would likely lose its privileged place at the BBC Proms.

The dilemma is simple: costs will go up, while the budget will go down. The SNP’s plan is therefore unsustainable.

Image: BBC SSO

The BBC SSO declined to comment, siting their impartiality. The BBC’s political impartiality is indeed sacrosanct – a cultural duty – but it seems bizarre that, party-politics aside, it shouldn’t wish to defend the Corporation’s collective integrity. Political impartiality can easily be mistaken for cultural ambivalence, and the BBC must be careful how it treads. The time may come when it will have to decide where it stands: it would be a sad irony if the world’s finest broadcaster were to sacrifice a world-class orchestra on the shrine of cultural integrity. 

Peter L. Wagstaff