It would cost the BBC about £1.5m to run a radio station for the Isle of Man, according to evidence given to a Tynwald committee.

Tynwald’s public service broadcast committee has been taking evidence about the island’s relationship with the BBC.

The committee, chaired by Ramsey MHK Dr Alex Allinson, is reviewing licence conditions, funding and other areas when considering technology and population changes.

It heard from four people from the BBC at last week’s sitting: Ken MacQuarrie, director of nations and regions; Laura Ellis, head of digital, BBC English regions; and Luke McCullough, parliamentary and corporate affairs manager.

The committee also considered the BBC’s relationship with Manx Radio, how Manx licence payers were served, the future of radio and the BBC’s presence in, and coverage of, the island.

Ken MacQuarrie, when answering a question in relation to island licence payers, revealed that in the year 2016/17, there was about 33,000 TV licences in the island.

With the cost of a colour TV licence being £150.50, the island is paying about £4,966,500, of which 90% is spent on BBC TV channels, radio stations, BBC iPlayer and online services.

Mr MacQuirrie said: ’I think BBC licence payers receive good value for money.’

However, Dr Allinson raised the question of whether due to the BBC not having a Manx-based radio station or TV station, whether the idea that islanders pay twice for one service because of Manx Radio’s funding from the tax payer. Ms Ellis said: ’It is hard to argue for creating new stations.

’We should, however, engage with other options.’

She also denied there was any lack of appetite for local news but said the issue was financial.

Ms Ellis stated that the cost of a BBC-run radio station in the island would be between £1.3 million and £1.7 million, which she noted was a similar amount to the cost of the Channel Islands’ services.

Both Jersey and Guernsey have their own BBC station, while Orkney and Shetland have opt-out services from BBC Radio Scotland. As well as radio stations for Jersey and Guernsey, the BBC has 15 minutes of news from the Channel Islands every night on BBC1.

Ms Ellis said that rather than comparing the island to Jersey and Guernsey - as was often done, including by her - the island should compare itself to a small county such as Cheshire.

That county does not have its own station and a proposal to set one up was scrapped due to savings needing to be made.

But Cheshire news can be covered by other BBC local stations - Radio Manchester, Radio Merseyside and Radio Stoke. For instance, Wilmslow is covered by Radio Manchester.

Although the issue was not picked up on in the committee, it does seem a strange comparison to make since Manx news is not covered by any BBC ’local’ stations in the way in which Cheshire’s is.

The committee returned to the question of whether the island was receiving good value for money for the licence fee and asked for further details.

Ms Ellis again responded by noting the 10 updates on the BBC Isle of Man page in the previous seven days. Since the committee sitting, TT updates have seen this be more frequent.

Ms Ellis also noted how the island featured on BBC Television’s North West Tonight.

As a comparison, Isle of Man Newspapers’ site, iomtoday.co.im, uploads about 12 news stories a day plus two or three sports stories.

Earlier in the hearing, Ms Ellis had said: ’We’ve deepened and broadened our coverage of key events, such as last year’s election, which we also covered extensively on television.’

Dr Allinson denounced BBC1’s North West Tonight’s coverage as often ’fluffy news’.

He said: ’It is often ducks crossing roads or goats.’

Ms Ellis said: ’It is a little unfair to characterise it as just light-hearted things.

’We did have quite a significant investment in the election, we did a whole programme.’

The programme in question aired for half an hour on September 14, 2016.

Ms Ellis also explained how coverage of the island occurs in sporadic bursts, such as during TT.

Manx Radio gets almost £1m in a subsidy from the taxpayer for its public services - and it posted a loss last year.

In addition, the government pays it for the upkeep of its own transmitters.