TWO OF SCOTLAND’S EADING EMPLOYERS
Taggart and Take the High Road could truly he descrihed as two of Scotland's most successful joh creation progratntnes. :\t today‘s prices. around £50 million
worth of work has heen generated
hy these two hugely popular
$1: and long running series. '. through sales to the ITV " network. l’roving conclusively that showhusiness can also he ‘ hi good husiness in Scotland.
Annually. sales of Scottish Television programmes to the rest of Britain and heyond have quadrupled since 1986 from £4 million to £17 million. And our programme makers now regularly out sell comparahle regional IT\' companies. winning l'K network commissions with an impressive range of productions which
put Scottish talent and technique on display to a much
wider audience.
Taggart alone employs almost 300 actors and many tnore extras each year. at a cost which would Just ahout pav tor a Scottish national theatre company tor a year. :\ significant comparison liy virtue oi the tact that those perloriners who are ahle to stay in Scotland working tor. television hv day are consequently availal‘le to play in local theatre lw night. In total last year. paid lees to musicians and actors tor
Scottish Tilt-Vision
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The Independent 'Iclevision (Toinmission s.i\s that in new
networking arrangements tor the 1990's it would "as a matter
of policy. wish to he satisfied that the network progratntnes would he drawn from different parts of the United Kingdom". Scots viewers make up one in ten of all British television audiences and although Scottish Television produces 150 hours of networked programming. presently south of the horder only one programme in every hundred seen at peak time is tnade in Scotland. Indeed. tor thirty years. Scots producers were virtually excluded from the
production of programming from British networks.
Today production of programmes is a large and growing industry. In 1991. ITV alone will spend over £400 million on programmes produced in Britain. Scottish Television helieves that Scotland deserves a hetter share.That's whylim Taggart. Isohel Blair and all our other talents are so important. They help us huild a husiness with a mission. And their popularity across Britain
will. we trust. help us over the $33" >
lTC‘s ‘quality threshold' in
j.. g? .i' '19" ' 1. to compete to continue as t P '
programming and allow us
hroadcasters to Central Scotland.
Because as well as making programmes ot diversity and quality in Scotland. for Scotland. our .lllil‘lllUli tor the decade ahead l\ to create a centre OI excellence in network production. employ more t)?"
Scottish talent. and put even more Scottish progranunes on
British st reens.
SCOTTISH TELEVISION I’l 'I"I‘|\(i 8(III'I‘TISII l’lill(;l{.\\l\lE.\' (l\ BRITISH SCREENS
'I‘he LN s — is April 199169