THE BBC has announced the launch of a new TV channel for Scotland.

The new BBC Scotland channel, which is set to begin broadcasting in Autumn 2018, will have a budget of £30m.

In a statement from the BBC this morning (Wednesday, February 22), they said: "The BBC is the national broadcaster for Scotland. The BBC wants to do even more to reflect Scotland on screen and to recognise the need to spend more of the licence fee raised in Scotland on Scottish content and services.

"That is why the BBC is making the biggest single investment in broadcast content in Scotland in over twenty years."

Upon the launch in Autumn 2018, the BBC will invest £19m in the channel and in digital developments. 

The corporation are also putting another £1.2 million into BBC Alba, taking the total new commitment to services for Scotland in Scotland to £20 million.

The broadcaster has also announced major investments in Scottish programming across the BBC’s Network TV output, with a particular focus on the commissioning of drama and factual programmes.

Compared to 2015/16, this means the BBC will be spending around £20m extra, per year, over the three years to March 2019. 

The new BBC Scotland TV channel will be broadcast from 7pm every evening, and aims to provide a full mix of content to inform, educate and entertain – including its own integrated hour-long news programme at 9pm, including a 15 minute bulletin at 7pm on weekends.

The programmes will be edited and presented from Scotland, which will lead to the creation of around 80 new journalist posts.

BBC Scotland has also outlined aims to; work in close partnership with the creative sector, other national institutions and other broadcasters to produce and acquire content; work in collaboration with other BBC television channels to offer additional content and have its own prominent EPG slot on broadcast channels in Scotland.

In addition, the channel will also be available online and in iPlayer in HD in Scotland and across the UK, and will support the delivery of extra programmes for BBC Alba as well including weekend news in Gaelic.

Tony Hall, BBC Director-General, said: “I said at the beginning of the year that the BBC needed to be more creative and distinctive. The BBC is Britain's broadcaster but we also need to do more for each nation just as we are doing more for Britain globally.

"We know that viewers in Scotland love BBC television, but we also know that they want us to better reflect their lives and better reflect modern Scotland. It is vital that we get this right. The best way of achieving that is a dedicated channel for Scotland.

"It’s a channel that will be bold, creative and ambitious, with a brand-new Scotland-edited international news programme at its heart. The BBC has the luxury of having first-class creative teams and brilliant journalists, who I know will make this new channel a huge success.

“The additional investment in Scottish drama and factual programming rightly recognises both the need to do more across our output and the huge pool of talent available in Scotland.

"We do make great programmes here, such as Shetland, Britain’s Ancient Capital – Secrets of Orkney, Two Doors Down and the brilliant Still Game – but we do need to do more.

“All of this combined amounts to the biggest single investment by the BBC in broadcast content in Scotland in over twenty years. This will be a huge boost for BBC Scotland and for the Scottish creative industries.

"This is an exciting time for BBC Scotland and for the millions of Scots who love TV.”

The proposals will be subject to approval by the BBC’s new unitary board, and as necessary, by Ofcom.