BBC Scotland cuts coverage of Edinburgh's festivals

The Herald Scotland

12-06-2025

It will be staging only five days of events with ticketed audiences after deciding to share space with the Pleasance Courtyard and the EICC.
Stand-up comedian Mark Nelson will also be returning with a festivals highlights programme, Edinburgh Unlocked, for the BBC Scotland channel.
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More than 100 shows have recorded or broadcast live across at least two weeks by the BBC since it started running its own pop-up venue during the summer festivals in 2011.
The line-up had gradually expanded to include programmes for the UK radio network, the BBC Scotland TV channel and Radio Scotland, the iPlayer and the BBC Sounds platform.
BBC Scotland is based at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. (Image: Newsquest)
The BBC's pop-up venue drew thousands of ticket-holders to the visitor attraction Dynamic Earth every day during the 2023 and 2024 festivals.
Special guests included singer-songwriters Kyle Falconer, Richard Jobson and Tom Robinson, authors Denise Mina, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Andrew O'Hagan, actors Brian Cox, Jack Docherty and Miriam Margolyes, comics Connor Burns, Frank Skinner and Susie McCabe, and theatre-makers Cora Bissett, Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair.
The BBC's pop-up venue was previously set up in the grounds of George Heriot's School, and at sites at Potterrow and High School Yards.
Stars who appeared in shows included comics Paul Merton, Nicholas Parsons, Tim Vine, Lucy Porter, Susan Calman and Russell Kane, writers Jackie Kay, Louise Welsh, Stig Abell and Alexander McCall Smith, and singer-songwriters Edwyn Collins and Rachel Sermanni.
The cuts in coverage of the Edinburgh festivals, which have emerged a few months into the tenure of new BBC Scotland director Hayley Valentine.
A spokesperson for the BBC said: "The BBC will return to the Edinburgh festivals with shows coming from the EICC and the Pleasance Courtyard between August 4 and 8.
"Our coverage will include ticketed events for audiences to attend recordings and live broadcasts of BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 4 shows.
"Edinburgh Unlocked presented by Mark Nelson will also return to the BBC Scotland channel, giving audiences a backstage pass to all the best of the Fringe and the wider festivals.
"We will also continue to provide special reports from the Edinburgh festivals across news tv, radio and online throughout August.
"Details of our programming line-up will be announced in due course.'
The scaling back of Edinburgh's festivals coverage has emerged following a number of recent controversies over the BBC's output in Scotland.
There was anger last year over a shake-up in Radio Scotland's music programming and its impact on long-running specialist shows on jazz, classical music and piping.
The BBC also came came under fire when it announced that its hour-long news programme The Nine would be scrapped just five years after its launch on a new BBC Scotland channel and replaced with a new early evening show, The Seven, which was launched in January.
However fresh controversy erupted in March when the BBC announced that it would be bringing the long-running drama series River City to an end, with the budget for the show redirected towards three dramas.
More than 12,000 supporters have backed a petition to save the show, while a politicians joined cast and crew to stage a protest outside the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood.
The BBC said the show, which has been on air since 2002 and is due to end in the autumn of 2026, was no longer offering "value for money."
The BBC spokesperson added: "The BBC works within an increasingly competitive marketplace and tight budget constraints.
"We have to make tough decisions to ensure we are delivering value for money which inevitably means evolving our offer accordingly whilst remaining committed to covering the Edinburgh festivals across all platforms."