First Minister Alex Salmond faces backlash after independent Scottish broadcaster comments at Edinburgh International Television Festival

With a referendum due to take place in autumn 2014 First Minister Alex Salmond took the opportunity to announce his plans for an independent Scottish broadcaster separate from the BBC should Scotland become independent at this year's Edinburgh International Television Festival. Since then politicians and media professionals have taken issue with the First Minister’s comments claiming a Scottish broadcasting service may do more harm than good.

Despite announcing that “Eastenders is safe” in an independent Scotland during his address to an audience of media professionals and television producers at this year’s Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, First Minister Alex Salmond has still received a barrage of criticism over his plans for an independent Scottish broadcaster and cutting ties with the BBC. On Friday Salmond argued that the current situation has left Scottish viewers and production teams “short changed,” adding “In an age of a digital revolution, broadcasting has not even adapted to devolution.”Labour MP for Glasgow East, Margaret Curran, who is also shadow secretary of state for Scotland, was quick to raise her concerns, commenting: “The First Minister wants to convince us that in a separate Scotland, our TV industry will continue to go from strength to strength.”“But what he fails to recognise is that it is taking advantage of everything the UK has to offer – the appeal of working in a new and dynamic creative centre such as Glasgow, combined with free access to a market of 55 million people – that draws many of the new and cutting edge creative companies to Scotland.”In his speech the First Minister admitted terrestrial television viewers in an independent Scotland would be denied some BBC programmes under his plans to create a Scottish public service broadcaster. Mr Salmond added that should Scotland vote for independence he would like to launch a channel which has more Scottish content than provided by BBC Scotland and STV at the moment, whilst still incorporating the best of the BBC network. Controller of BBC Four, whose high-brow programming would likely be dropped by a Scottish network, Richard Klein, voiced his disdain for Salmond’s plans commenting: “"I can't imagine the services will be as good. We have a lot of money you can amalgamate, amortise.”This new broadcaster would take a share of the licence fee paid to the BBC by Scottish viewers for the time being with Salmond adding that any changes to the licence would be up for “discussion.” So what models could an independent Scottish broadcaster follow? The First Minister drew comparisons with the Denmark which with a population of 5.6 million is on par with Scotland’s 5.2 million nationals. Though the Danish licence fee is higher, £230 as opposed to the UK’s £145.50, the country has produced quality home-grown drama in recent years. Most notably, The Killing which was remade by American network AMC in 2011. Salmond also suggested he was open to the possibility of a network similar to Ireland’s RTE which subsidises the licence fee with ads. The benefits of this would see a boost in funds without raising costs for viewers. Labour’s deputy leader, Harriet Harman stepped in to the discussion calling Salmond’s plans “unrealistic” and stating it would be better for the nation to keep the public service broadcaster even if it became independent. Harman states that a new Scottish broadcaster on a £320 million a year budget would have to take on additional overheads currently covered by London, for example “an additional BBC Trust” adding “looking into the details of what he is saying, it might very much unravel.” The First Minister’s plans also gained no favour from Jackson Carlaw, Scottish Conservative deputy leader, who claimed Salmond’s idea was “another nonsensical outburst” from the First Minister and “the only things missing, as usual, are the evidence and the detail.” Despite the criticism’s Salmond argues: “Viewers are clearly voting with their remote controls for more Scottish content," but will he be the man to give them it?