At a fact-finding and policy discussion meeting at the Birnam Institute on 16 August, MSP for North Tayside John Swinney and Perthshire MP Pete Wishart met with Dave Rushton, the director of the Edinburgh-based Institute of Local Television.

Among the issues considered was the devolution of responsibility for broadcasting and communications to the Scottish Parliament, which is currently a reserved power at Westminster.

Topics also addressed ranged from the provision of wireless broadband capacity for the numerous poorly-served Scottish communities, to the evaluation of a new local media fund for Scotland aimed to support local public service broadcasting for all the minority communities throughout the nation.