Greens hail free to view Scotland football talks at BBC
Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay has hailed the news of ongoing talks to finally secure free to view coverage of the Scottish men’s football team, saying that it "could be the 12th man" in building support for the team.
This follows comments made by BBC Scotland Director Hayley Valentine at the Scottish Parliament’s Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee during questions by Ms Mackay.
In her first question to Ms Valentine, Gillian Mackay asked:
“At the Scotland select committee at Westminster you indicated that the BBC would be open to working towards having Scotland national football games broadcast on free to view TV. Could you update the committee on what work is underway?”
In her response Ms Valentine confirmed that conversations are happening, and reiterated that if possible she would love to be able to bring the Scotland men’s team games to the BBC.
In her second question, Ms Mackay raised the possibility of putting Scotland matches on a protected fixtures list alongside other major cultural events:
“I very much recognise the issue of the cost of acquiring these rights for public sector broadcasters, having had conversations with different broadcasters over the course of my campaign.
“I wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray, before Christmas to ask him to put Scotland games on the prescribed fixtures list. I should note that I have yet to receive a reply. Would a move like that help with solving the issues around the cost of acquiring the rights and is it an ask that you would support?”
Ms Valentine and her colleague Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, responded that the list is the responsibility of the UK government so could not comment on the impact, but both stressed the importance of the list and free to view sport.
Following Ms Valentine’s evidence, Ms Mackay said:
“It’s clear that there is a huge level of support for free to view football among fans, and I really welcome the interest from the BBC and other broadcasters.
“The support of households and families around our country can be the 12th man in building support for our team. I hope that we can all work together to bring football out from behind the paywall and into living room’s all across Scotland.”