Audience Council Scotland

The Audience Council Scotland (ACS) was created upon establishment of the BBC Trust in January 2007. It replaced the Broadcasting Council for Scotland which had many responsibilities the present Council now has.

ACS plays a key role helping the BBC Trust understand the needs, interests and concerns of audiences in Scotland. The ACS is chaired by the BBC Trustee for Scotland and consists of 11 members who bring a range of interests, experience and perspectives to the work of representing the audience in Scotland. The Council meets at least 11 times per year to assess and advise the BBC Trust.

The ACS holds a number of public engagement events throughout the year across the country and meets monthly to discuss issues concerning audiences. ACS engages with audiences in a range of ways, it monitors comments made by audiences to the BBC, reviews audience research, and may commission its own, ACS engages directly with members of the audience via focus groups and a range of audience events. Recent examples of the ACS advising the BBC Trust were the Nations and Regions Impartiality Review and the launch of BBC Alba.

The Council reports to the BBC Trust monthly on issues of concern to licence payers in Scotland and presents an annual report to the BBC Trust. The ACS monitors the performance of the BBC against the Public Purposes set for it in the Royal Charter and Agreement. The ACS also publishes an account of its activities and assessment in the BBC Scotland Annual Review

There are other councils for the other three nations in Wales, England and Northern Ireland.

The Broadcasting Council for Scotland held its first meeting on 14 January 1953, chaired by BBC National Governor for Scotland, Lord Clydesmuir. Held in Broadcasting House, 5 Queen Street, Edinburgh, the meeting was attended by the BBC's Director General, Ian Jacob and the Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, Sir Alexander Cadogan.

The minutes show that the Council offered strategic guidance on many key broadcasting issues over the years; from the extension of the transmitter network to the north and west to the development of BBC television output for Scotland in the 1950s. 'The prime need', wrote the Council in its section of the BBC Annual Handbook in 1958, 'is to correct the inescapable predominance of English and metropolitan interests'.

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