SFSA BLUE PLAQUES LAUNCH FIND OUT MORE
Date: 21st March 2026
Cooncil tele 3 Pay per View 1
By Donad C Stewart
A sketchy and humorous look at the outpourings of the great, the good and the not so good of Scottish fitba’ by Donald C Stewart. Readers are warned that if they take this seriously then therapy is available – just let us know where you find it so we can pass it on to others…
If, like me, every month you’re looking at your bank statement, counting off the number of subscriptions you have just to get a decent picture on your tele, with subscriptions to Sky, to Amazon Prime, to DAZN because I follow boxing and others that fall off the tongue less easily like Marquee, or count the fortune of having Discovery because I am with a certain phone company, it’s a huge commitment.
The one thing, however, that I pay with pride is my BBC subscription or as it is known: The License Fee
I don’t have a problem with paying for it, unlike others who point to the bias against their political opinion from either left or right or the lack of this or the lack of that. I simply believe that the state should have skin in the game. What it does is it ensures that we don’t end up with an American style system where all of us are screaming and bawling and shouting on X owned by Elon Musk about Fox News owned by some other billionaire. I would rather we had a tradition of screaming and bawling at the state broadcaster because they’re not doing the things that we like, whilst they’re also putting money into far-flung things like jazz, a World Service, radio drama and so on.
So, all kudos to the BBC who have announced that they are going to broadcast the first Scottish Cup semi-final for the men between Dunfermline Athletic and Falkirk.
Friday night football on BBC was enhanced considerably when they decided to follow the Championship. We have seen some fantastic games, although the recent Morton-Partick Thistle game left a little bit to be desired for Morton fans, with Partick Thistle getting a late winner.
More importantly, what is really special is that you get a section of Scottish football that’s not about the Old Firm. You get excitement that is a competitive league, a little more competitive now that Partick Thistle has rediscovered their form, but generally speaking, the rise of Hearts or Kilmarnock through the Championship was charted by BBC.
On top of the Fife semi-final, the women’s game has also got their both of their Scottish Cup semi-finals being broadcast where Celtic will face Glasgow City and Rangers will face Montrose. The former will be on BBC Alba, the latter, BBC Scotland.
Gaun yersels!
It’s a much more pluralist system when the broadcasting of games is open to everybody and anybody can tune in.
That means that the last of the semi-finals, the Celtic /St Mirren one, is going to be left to Premier Sports. That is one channel that I have not spent the money on and won’t. Having bought the rights to Scottish football, I’m not knocking the fact that they poured some money into the fitba, and we got some investment from a broadcaster, however, it’s not been a universal success – because it is such a minority company and a “not so cheap” addition to the landscape of broadcasting.
When I want to watch Premiership games, I am downhearted when I see the ones that I really want to watch on a subscription channel. But of course, you can get the highlights on… the BBC… for free…
Other broadcasters have done something special with clubs like Netflix. If Netflix ever think that The Spartans or Clyde are worthy of a Wrexham style focus, I’m going to catch them on my Netflix subscription, and I’m going to be very happy.
But I would rather they were on the BBC. I would rather they were on ITV. I would rather they were on Channel 4 or Channel 5. Can you remember when Channel 5 decided to follow the European Cup Winners’ Cup one year, the year Chelsea won it and they were praised to the highest for the work that they did in promoting the English club and English football? It is that type of punt on lesser appreciated football that doesn’t always get the focus that broadcasters should be praised for doing.
I do watch some obscure games mind you. I remember the first time that I got Sky TV on a Friday night I think I was watching Dagenham and Redbridge versus Northampton Town and thought I really would watch any kind of football! The majority of us are more likely tuning to Barcelona or Real Madrid or Arsenal or even Tottenham Hotspur more often than any of the lower leagues, however at least the opportunity for lower league fans to get their club on the telly is possible. In Scotland we also have the brilliant A View from the Terrace highlighting supporters, issues and histories of many lower league clubs. The BBC have therefore done a fantastic job of giving lower league supporters a chance to see themselves. Now that spotlight will come down on a club that was once a sleeping giant and is now making big waves – if I can mix my metaphors – Falkirk who will face a resurgent Dunfermline Athletic a Championship club, who in the last round schooled Aberdeen in the quarter final.
Can’t wait to see what happens there and long may it continue. ’Mon the Cooncil tele!!!
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Tags: oor Donald, Scottish football, Tartan Army