BBC 'in live talks' to introduce free-to-view Scottish football matches
BBC SCOTLAND is in live talks to introduce free-to-view coverage of the Scottish men’s football team, it has been revealed.
The announcement of live discussions was made by the director of BBC Scotland, Hayley Valentine, during questions from the Scottish Affairs Committee in the House of Commons.
Valentine, who took over as the director of the channel in October, told Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee she would be "delighted" as she herself is "a big football fan".
The BBC Scotland director said: "I know how important sport is to Scottish audiences. I'm a big football fan. These moments are huge for us and of course we would love to have the men's internationals.
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"These things are not cheap and we have to think about value for money in all of our decision-making. In order to pay for one thing, there's not extra money, what are we not doing in order to fund something else?
"I don't really want to go much further than that because, as you can imagine, there are live discussions going on. Of course I'd be delighted if we could bring these to free-to-air audiences.
"We will cover the Commonwealth Games. There are discussions going on about rights which I can't go into in this room. But if you look back at what we did the last time, I think that sense of how we cover sport as a whole... it's not just about the live match.
"It's about what we do around the outside and that sense of how we bring a city, the country, together is really important to me."
Greens MSP Gillian Mackay welcomed the news, having called for an end to the reliance on subscription services or pay-to-view channels as part of a campaign to bring football closer to fans.
Last month, Mackay wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland, Ian Murray, urging him to back the growing calls.
Mackay said: “This news will be welcomed by football fans all over Scotland, who want to back our team but are being priced out of it. I hope that these talks succeed and that we are able to get our national team out from behind a paywall.
“Sport should be for everyone, and I want as many young people as possible to be able to grow up watching their heroes in action. That can help us to ensure that our next generation of footballers can feel inspired and dream of playing for their country.
“Many countries already ensure their games are free to view. It would be great if 2025 is the year that Scotland can finally join them.”
Valentine also told the committee that moving to a subscription model like US streaming giants would undermine the BBC’s commitment to “universality”.
