Calls for the BBC to introduce a separate six o'clock news programme for Scotland received a boost yesterday when the corporation's former director general admitted he was in favour of the idea.
Greg Dyke's comments came as it emerged First Minister Alex Salmond also plans to hold meetings with the BBC to make the case for the so-called Scottish Six.
Mr Salmond will also voice his support for the programme, as well as announce a new commission to look at the future of broadcasting in Scotland, in a speech later this week.
Mr Dyke, who resigned from the BBC's top job in 2004 following the Hutton inquiry, said that he had "increasingly came to the view" that a Scottish Six was a good idea but had faced opposition from, among others, former Home Secretary John Reid.
He said: "I think those powers devolved to Holyrood, such as health and education, were covered on the national news in a way that wasn't applicable to Scotland.
"I could increasingly see the problem with broadcasting and devolution."
Mr Dyke added: "What was interesting was the split between Scottish Labour MPs and the Labour Party in Scotland.
"I remember John Reid lobbying me very hard against it."
A recent report by Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, found that all of the terrestrial television channels had reduced the amount of money they spent on producing shows in Scotland.
In his speech at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh on Wednesday, the First Minister is expected to call for that trend to be reversed.
"I've been told the target for the industry is to have 9% of the network budgets spent here in Scotland. Well that'll do for a start, but we should regard that as a floor and not as a ceiling," Mr Salmond will say.
He will also reveal his plans to meet television bosses to press the case for greater investment north of the border.
"I will be speaking to the BBC and the other television networks about what we can do to ensure that they're getting the right kind of talent and ideas from Scotland." he will add.
A spokesman for Mr Salmond said yesterday: "The First Minister will deliver a wide-ranging speech on broadcasting in Scotland, on both its central role in our democracy and also the cultural and economic benefits of our creative industries.
"Broadcasting can be Scotland's window on the world, and we need a debate on the way forward in terms of boosting production in Scotland as well as devolving broadcasters' responsibility."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article