On Thursday, voters in Scotland will go to the polls to answer the question, “Should Scotland be an independent country?” The result will have huge implications for the United Kingdom, and will be watched by separatist movements from Spain to Iran to China.
The BBC World Service will offer coverage of the referendum, its possible implications, and reaction to the results, tailored to a global audience. All programming is planned to follow the World Service clock, but will break format for the ‘Final Results’ of the referendum, or as other news warrants. Preliminary estimates say the result will be announced sometime between 1:30 – 2:30 AM ET.
PROGRAMS (all times Eastern)
Wednesday, September 17, 10:00 AM, available to broadcast until 6:00 PM
Newshour Special: Ten Questions on the Scottish Referendum
Join Owen Bennett-Jones and a panel of BBC guests to discuss and debate the key questions raised by Thursday’s referendum on independence in Scotland. Voters in Scotland will be answering the question: Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes or No.
Whatever the outcome, it is clear that the relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom will change as Scotland embarks either on a path to independence or a road to greater autonomy. What does this mean: for Scotland, for its relations with the rest of the UK, and for England, Wales and Northern Ireland? And how might the UK’s relations with the rest of the world change?
*** This program will be made available from 0700 ET for partners via download and air from Content Depot in the “American Public Media Exchange.” It will also air on the World Service APM stream at 10:00 AM, replacing Business Daily and Click.
Thursday, September 18 and Friday, September 19
On September 18, Scotland votes in the referendum on independence from the UK and a union dating back three centuries could come to an end. We’ll have live coverage from Scotland as the results come in from Thursday September 18 at 5:00 PM ET through to Friday September 19, 11:00 AM ET. We bring you the reaction from both the “Yes” and “Better Together” camps and talk to people around the world who have their own particular interest in seeing whether Scotland will vote to go it alone.
Program titles and times (in Eastern time, BBC newscast and breaks as usual)
5:00 – 7:59 PM: The Newsroom
8:00 – 9:59 PM: The Newsroom
10:00 PM – 3:29 AM: Newsday
Friday, September 19:
3:32 – 03:59 AM: Business Daily, co-hosted from financial district of London and from Scotland, looking at the economic aspects of what’s happened – either yes or no, there will be economic fallout.
4:00 – 5:59 AM: World Update
6:00 – 6:59 AM: Outside Source
7:00 – 7:59 AM: The Fifth Floor (which may be preempted to cover breaking and developing news from Scotland)
8:00 – 9:59 AM: Newshour
10:06 -10:29 AM: Tech Tent
10:32 – 10:59 AM: World Have Your Say: The Referendum – Special edition from Scotland
11:00 AM: Normal schedules resume
Of course, this schedule may change as events warrant. Significant updates will be communicated via this email, as well as alerts in Content Depot.