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BBC Alba is a

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

-language

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and

MG Alba MG Alba is the operating name of the Gaelic Media Service ( gd, Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig). The organisation's remit, under the Communications Act 2003, is to ensure that a wide and diverse range of high quality Gaelic programmes is m ...

. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day with BBC Radio nan Gàidheal simulcasts. The name ' is the Scottish Gaelic name for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The station is unique in that it is the first channel to be delivered under a BBC licence by a partnership and was also the first multi-genre channel to come entirely from Scotland with almost all of its programmes made in Scotland. BBC Alba had an average viewership of 637,000 adults over the age of 16 in Scotland each week.

History

In 2007, the

BBC Trust The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...

opened a consultation for a Gaelic digital service in partnership with the Gaelic Media Service. Following the BBC Trust consultation in November 2007, the

Audience Council Scotland The Audience Council Scotland (ACS) is an organisation that helps the BBC Trust understand the needs, interests and concerns of audiences in Scotland. It was created upon establishment of the BBC Trust in January 2007. It replaced the Broadcastin ...

recommended their support for the creation of the service on 7 December 2007, stating that the Trust should pursue carriage of the service on digital terrestrial television and that the existing "Gaelic zone" programming on

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. I ...

should remain after the launch. On 28 January 2008, the BBC Trust gave the go-ahead for a Gaelic channel. The channel began broadcasting on satellite at 9:00 pm on 19 September 2008 with a launch video featuring a new rendition of the

Runrig Runrig were a Scottish Celtic rock band formed on the Isle of Skye in 1973. From its inception, the band's line-up included songwriters Rory Macdonald and Calum Macdonald. The line-up during most of the 1980s and 1990s (the band's most succe ...

song, '. The first part of a live ''

cèilidh A cèilidh ( , ) or céilí () is a traditional Scottish or Irish social gathering. In its most basic form, it simply means a social visit. In contemporary usage, it usually involves dancing and playing Gaelic folk music, either at a house p ...

'' from

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated b ...

, presented by Mary Ann Kennedy, was followed by a specially produced comedy-drama entitled ' (Elvis), starring

Greg Hemphill Gregory Edward Hemphill (born 14 December 1969) is a Scottish-Canadian comedian, actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his work with Ford Kiernan on the BBC Scotland comedy series ''Chewin' The Fat'' (1999–2005) and ''Still Game'' ...

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

, at 9:30 pm. The channel's first independent commission, ' (''Peter Manuel - The End of Evil?''), a drama-documentary produced by

STV Productions STV Studios (previously STV Productions, SMG Productions, and originally known as Scottish Television Enterprises) is the television production arm of the STV Group plc. Headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, and with an office in London, England ...

, was shown at 10:30 pm before the opening night closed with the second half of the live ''cèilidh'' from Skye. The launch night was simulcast on

BBC Two Scotland BBC Two Scotland ( gd, BBC Dhà Alba) was the national variation of BBC Two for BBC Scotland. It was broadcast via digital television and was the sister Scottish channel of BBC One Scotland and Gaelic-language BBC Alba. Unlike BBC One Scotland, ...

between 9:00 pm and 10:30 pm and a launch event was held at the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

, which was recorded by the channel's news service '. A study carried out for the channel indicated that 650,000 people watched BBC Alba per week in the first two months of broadcasting, in spite of only being available to around a third of Scots. After being subject to a review by the BBC Trust and a recommendation from the

in 2009, a plan was announced to broadcast the channel on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

, in Scotland only, from the digital switchover (2010) under the proviso that reach of the service extended beyond the core Gaelic audience to 250,000. This was approved on 27 December 2010 by the BBC Trust and the service launched on Freeview on 8 June 2011. The channel also launched on Virgin Media (Scotland only) on 18 May 2011, and was made available nationwide on the Virgin Media and Sky platforms, the former on 6 November 2012.

Operation

BBC Alba is broadcast for up to seven hours a day in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

on satellite platforms

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

and

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...

, cable provider

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...

and on digital terrestrial provider

in Scotland only. BBC Alba simulcasts the BBC's Gaelic-language radio service BBC Radio nan Gàidheal as well during the day after midnight (1am on Saturday night), which in turn simulcasts

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 November 197 ...

overnight. Programmes are also available to watch on the Internet live through services including the

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

and some programmes are available for 30 days after broadcast on this service and on catch up services of some other services. The channel is financed from the

budget and by MG Alba, which itself is financed by the Scottish Government and

UK Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

. The BBC spent £8 million on the channel, of which £5 million was used for programming, in 2011/12 MG Alba applies the majority of its budget (£12.4 million in 2008/09) to the Gaelic Digital Service. BBC Alba continuity presentation and channel management is based in Stornoway, while the news services are based in Inverness.

's headquarters at

Pacific Quay Pacific Quay is an area south of the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. It is located at the former Plantation Quay and Princes' Dock Basin. The Princes' Dock Basin was the largest on the River Clyde when it was opened by the Clyde Navigation T ...

in Glasgow is used to transmit the programmes. The BBC have confirmed that BBC Alba HD will launch online and on various platforms between October 2021 and the end of 2022.

Content

BBC Alba combines

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and

on-line In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...

programme content. BBC Alba broadcasts more Scottish sport than any other channel, with over three hours a week of football, rugby and

shinty Shinty ( gd, camanachd, iomain) is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread in Scotland, an ...

. In addition, the station also broadcasts a live news programme every day, with the weekend news provision beginning in 2018.

Programming

Output on the channel consists of news, current affairs, sport, drama, documentary, entertainment, education, religion and children's programming, broadcast on most days between 5 pm and 12 am. Children's programmes are shown for two hours every weekday, between 17:00 and 19:00. Starting in 2018, a rebranding initiative saw the first hour presented as 'CBeebies Alba' and the second hour as 'CBBC Alba'. They are the Scottish Gaelic versions of the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

and

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older childr ...

channels. A nightly news programme, ', airs nightly throughout the week, usually in its regular slot of 8:00 pm. Saturday night features weekly coverage of a selected

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

match and matches are regularly shown from the

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL 1 and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of the Scottish Women's Football League ...

and the friendlies and competitive matches involving the Scottish women's national football team.

Current programmes

* @12 * A' Chùil * Aithne air Ainmhidhean *

An Là ''An Là'' (''The Day'') is a Scottish Gaelic-language news programme broadcast on the Gaelic-language channel, BBC Alba. The programme, based at BBC Alba's newsroom in Inverness, began at 8pm on 22 September 2008 and provides a 30-minute b ...

* A-null's a-null *

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places part ...

Danger Mouse (2015 TV series) ''Danger Mouse'' is an animated television series, produced by FremantleMedia and Boulder Media, though it started being produced by Boat Rocker Media in 2018 after they acquired FremantleMedia Kids & Family. The series, which is a revival ...

Frauen-Bundesliga The Frauen-Bundesliga (German for ''Women's Federal League''), currently known as the FLYERALARM Frauen-Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of league competition for women's association football in Germany. In 1990 the German Foo ...

* Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness *

Moominvalley (TV series) ''Moominvalley'' ( fi, Muumilaakso, sv, Mumindalen, also known as just ''Moomin'') is a 2019 animated family drama series. An adaptation of the classic ''Moomin'' books and comics by writer-illustrator Tove Jansson and her brother Lars Jansson ...

Paper Port (TV series) Paper Port (Spanish: ''Puerto Papel'') is a 2016 Animated series, animated television series produced by Zumbastico Studios. The series blends stop-motion and 2D animation with papercraft characters and environments, in a technique called ''Paperm ...

* Peek Zoo *

Peppa Pig ''Peppa Pig'' is a British preschool animated television series by Astley Baker Davies. The show follows Peppa, an anthropomorphic female piglet, and her family, as well as her peers portrayed as other animals. The show first aired on 31 Ma ...

Pipas and Douglas Pipas may refer to: *The plural of pipa, a Chinese stringed instrument *A Mediterranean surname, also spelled Bibas ** James Pipas, American virologist * Pipas Bay, a bay in Angola See also * Pipa (disambiguation) {{dab, surname ...

Pompon Little Bear A pom-pom – also spelled pom-pon, pompom or pompon – is a decorative ball or tuft of fibrous material. The term may refer to large tufts used by Cheerleading, cheerleaders, or a small, tighter ball attached to the top of a hat, al ...

* Saidheans Spòrsail *

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

Scottish Football League First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as t ...

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association. The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA in 1886 and, as of the 2022–23 edition, 108 teams compete ...

The Adventures of Tintin (TV series) ''The Adventures of Tintin'' is an animated television series co-produced, written, and animated by French animation studio Ellipse Programme and Canadian studio Nelvana Limited. The series is based on the comic book series of the same name by ...

The Rubbish World of Dave Spud ''The Rubbish World of Dave Spud'' (shortened to ''Dave Spud'') is a British children's animated series featuring the surreal adventures of the eponymous Dave Spud of Grimsby, his friends and tower block-dwelling family. It was created and di ...

Thomas and Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

Upcoming programmes

* My Little Heroes

Former programmes

* A'Gharaids *

Aifric ''Aifric'' () is an Irish-language TV series aimed at young adults, co-created and written by Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin and co-created and directed by Paul Mercier. The show has won multiple IFTA awards for "Best Children's/Youth Program". The fir ...

Air an Rathad The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

Alpha and Omega Alpha (Α or α) and omega (Ω or ω) are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and a title of Christ and God in the Book of Revelation. This pair of letters is used as a Christian symbol, and is often combined with the Cross, Chi-rh ...

Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks ''Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks'' is a computer-animated television series for kids produced by Bagdasarian Productions and Technicolor Animation Productions with the participation of the French channel M6. First announced by Bagdasarian Producti ...

Bannan (TV series) ''Bannan'' (English title: ''The Ties that Bind'') is a Gaelic-language television series produced by Young Films and first broadcast by BBC Alba in 2014. It tells the story of the return of Màiri MacDonald from Glasgow to the Gaelic-speakin ...

* Big Barn Farm *

Bob The Builder ''Bob the Builder'' is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The series follows the adventures of Bob, a building contractor, specialising in masonry, along with hi ...

* Broadford or Bust *

Charlie and Lola Charlie and Lola are fictional children created by the English writer and illustrator Lauren Child in 2000. They were introduced in a series of picture books and later adapted as animated television characters. Lola is an energetic and imagina ...

* Cuide ri Cathy * Dragons: Race to the Edge * Ealtainn *

Get Blake! ''Get Blake!'' (formerly Blake and the Aliens) is a French-American animated television series created by Antonie Guilbaud and produced by Marathon Media and Nickelodeon Productions. The show aired on both Gulli and Nickelodeon in France. Accord ...

* Làrach anns an Fhàsach * Lostbost *

Louie (French TV series) Louie (''Didou'' in the original French) is an animation television series produced by the French company Millimages, created by Isabeau Merle, adapted from the work of Yves Got and directed by Frédéric Mege, Frédérick Chaillou & François ...

Pimpa Pimpa or ''La Pimpa'' is an Italian comic strip, created by Francesco Tullio Altan, whose main character is a red-spotted female dog. The comic strip was published by the comics magazine ''Corriere dei Piccoli'' from 1975 until 1995; from 1987 i ...

* Scream Street (TV series) * Seasaidh Lexy * Slighe gu Biadh * Squeak! *

Strange Hill High ''Strange Hill High'' is a British children's puppet-animated series for CBBC. The show is a co-production between CBBC, FremantleMedia and Factory. Out of the many writers, it was noted that Josh Weinstein (who worked on ''The Simpsons'' and ' ...

* Tìr is Teanga

Subtitling

Most of the adult programming on BBC Alba contains on-screen

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

subtitles Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...

. For logistical reasons, live broadcasts (including the news) are not subtitled, although certain events (e.g. the annual

Hogmanay Hogmanay ( , ) is the Scots word for the last day of the old year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner. It is normally followed by further celebration on the morning of New Year's Day (1 January) or i ...

broadcast ') have scripted elements that are subtitled, while interviews and ad-libbed lines are not. Children's programmes are not subtitled. Controversially, no English dialogue on the channel is subtitled into Scottish Gaelic.

Sport

BBC Alba concentrates on four sports:

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

, and

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

. During the 2009–10 season, the station broadcast one full

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

game every Saturday night. The game selected was always one not covered by either live

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

or on an on-demand basis by

BT Vision BT TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT; a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of June 2019, BT TV had 1.9 million customers. ...

and was shown three hours after the end of the match. The matches only included Gaelic commentary along with English subtitles. The channel reached an agreement with the

to broadcast live

games during the 2008–09 season. This began with the final of the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

, which was also sponsored by MG Alba. BBC Alba then started broadcasting First Division games, beginning with the match between Airdrie United and

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

on 22 February 2009. BBC Alba also struck a deal with the Scottish rugby authorities to show one live rugby,

Scottish Premiership Division One The Scottish Premiership is the highest level club division in Scotland's national rugby union league divisions, and therefore part of the Scottish League Championship. It contains many of the country's highest profile clubs. However it is not th ...

match every weekend. For the 2015–16 season, BBC Alba will show 20 live matches (excluding Rangers) from either 2015-16 Scottish Championship (including the play-off final), League 1 or

League 2 The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

as well as four matches from the

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

highlights, showing one hour highlights of two non-televised matches on a Saturday and Sunday night at 22:00. Other football coverage includes all Scotland U21s and

Women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

matches. As well as the final of the 2015-16 Scottish Junior Cup. In 2010 BBC Alba bought the rights for

rugby jointly with public service broadcasters from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales. In May 2020, BBC Alba broadcast the last five matches of Women's Bundesliga.

Independent production companies

A number of independent companies have been commissioned to produce content for the channel, or have productions currently airing. These include: * Theatre Hebrides (') * Madmac Productions (''Broadford or Bust'') * Caledonia Stern and Wylde (') * MnE Media, formerly known as ' (', ') * Tern TV (') * Eyeline Media (', ') * MacTV (') * Studio Alba (') * Young Films ('' Bannan'')

Criticism

English content and lack of Gaelic subtitles

The Gaelic community, including writers

Aonghas MacNeacail Aonghas MacNeacail (born 7 June 1942), nickname ''Aonghas dubh'' or ''Black Angus'', is a contemporary writer in the Scottish Gaelic language. Early life MacNeacail was born in Uig on the Isle of Skye on 7 June 1942. He was raised in Idrigil, ...

Angus Peter Campbell Angus Peter Campbell ( gd, Aonghas P(h)àdraig Caimbeul; born 1952) is a Scottish award-winning poet, novelist, journalist, broadcaster and actor. Campbell's works, which are written mainly in Scottish Gaelic, draw heavily upon both Hebridean my ...

, Lisa Storey and musician Allan MacDonald, have criticised the non-availability of Gaelic subtitles, and the emphasis on English-language interviews and reportage in the channel's content for adults. Writers and authors were reported by the BBC Gaelic news service as setting up a campaign, GAIDHLIG.TV, to increase Gaelic content on BBC Alba. The decision to introduce '

red button Red button may refer to: *Red Button (digital television), a button on the remote control for certain digital television set top boxes in the United Kingdom and Australia, and used to access interactive television services **BBC Red Button, a digit ...

facilities' to allow viewers to switch to English-language sports commentary, first announced in August 2014 for rugby and the

Guinness Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

series, was heavily criticised by the Gaelic community. The criticism resulted in MG Alba announcing publicly in the

West Highland Free Press The ''West Highland Free Press'' was founded in the Scottish Highlands in 1972 as a left-wing weekly newspaper, but with the principal objective of providing its immediate circulation area with the service which a local paper is expected to pr ...

that the 'red button option' for English-language commentary would not expand to other sports or areas of the channel.

Sports programming

Between its launch in September 2008 and the beginning of 2010, the BBC Alba channel lost a third of its viewers, but its number of viewers remains five times larger than the size of the Gaelic speech community in Scotland (just over 58,000). The historian Michael Fry has argued that many of its viewers only watch it for the football coverage, because "you don't need Gaelic to watch football", and that in this way the channel is "cheating". The model is, however, both common and intentional as it is on comparable channels such as the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

channel

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

, the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

broadcaster EITB or the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

channel S4C. In Europe, these channels' main mission is not commercial, but the promotion of the original languages.

Freeview

Some criticism had been levied over the channel's addition to Freeview, primarily due to the BBC's original plan (with acceptance from the BBC Executive) to remove all 13 BBC Radio channels from Freeview for Scottish viewers over the period that BBC Alba will be shown on Freeview (between 5 pm and midnight); however the criticism has not been directed at the BBC's decision to extend BBC ALBA to Freeview in principle. On 19 May 2011, it was reported that the BBC has backed down on the plans, after the BBC had "managed to reengineer facilities" to allow

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been cod ...

, 5 Live and

6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

to continue to broadcast on a 24-hour basis. The three stations were chosen because they have the highest evening audience ratings on digital television of the seven BBC radio stations unavailable on FM radio. On 2 December 2013, it was confirmed that more radio stations were made available 24 hours in Scotland, but with some trade-offs.

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

, 4 Extra,

5 Live Sports Extra BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra (formerly BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) is a national digital radio in the United Kingdom, digital radio station in the United Kingdom, operated by the BBC, and specialising in extended live sports coverage. It is a s ...

and

BBC Asian Network BBC Asian Network is a British Asian radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station's target audience is people "with an interest in British Asian lifestyles", especially British Asians between the ages of 18 and 34. The station has ...

were restored, but as noted in the blog with some technical trade-offs, such as mono audio rather than stereo during the evenings on the radio stations mentioned and the audio bit rate of the TV channels in Scotland on Freeview reduced to 192 kbit/s from 256 kbit/s.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:BBC ALBA (Tv Channel) 2008 establishments in Scotland BBC television channels in the United Kingdom Scottish Gaelic mass media Television channels and stations established in 2008 Television channels in Scotland Indigenous television BBC Scotland