TeleG was established as the first daily digital

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

TV channel in

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 ...

on 31 October 1999, and was available on the

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), a ...

platform until 23 May 2011. Programs were transmitted on TeleG between 6pm and 7pm each day. The channel slot was shared with the

CITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

channel (which broadcast from 6am to 6pm) and

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

+1 (which broadcast from 7pm to 6am). The Broadcasting Act of 1996 required that programs aired would be repeats transmitted on analogue channels (many of which are first shown outside peak hours). The

Communications Act 2003 The Communications Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act, which came into force on 25 July 2003, superseded the Telecommunications Act 1984. The new act was the responsibility of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. It ...

created the Gaelic Media Service which decides on the future development of Gaelic Broadcasting services. The broadcaster and service provider of TeleG was SDN, the company which holds the license for DTT multiplex A. SDN, then owned by

NTL NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications Li ...

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

and

United Business Media UBM plc was a British business-to-business (B2B) events organiser headquartered in London, England, before its acquisition by Informa in 2018. It had a long history as a multinational media company. Its main focus was on B2B events, but its p ...

, was awarded the Multiplex A licence in May 1998. Part of the capacity on Multiplex A was reserved for services provided by Channel 5,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and Gaelic programming in Scotland. SDN was purchased by

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the ...

in 2005. TeleG initially continued to broadcast after the launch of

BBC Alba BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day with BBC Radio nan Gàidheal s ...

on 19 September 2008. At launch BBC Alba was only available on

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

before later being added to

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

. TeleG would continue to broadcast until 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 ...

had reviewed the performance of BBC Alba and announced their decision on whether they would recommend carriage of BBC Alba on Freeview. In December 2010, the BBC Trust approved a plan put forward by BBC management which would see the thirteen

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...

stations which broadcast on Freeview removed from the platform in Scotland during the hours of BBC Alba's broadcast to free up capacity for the TV channel to operate. The radio services would not be affected outside Scotland, and the affected BBC radio stations would continue to be available on other platforms in Scotland including:

DAB digital radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting syst ...

, FM/AM (where applicable), satellite and cable TV and online. A date for the change to be brought in has yet to be confirmed, and as the service would broadcast on the BBC's public service multiplex, the effect that this would have on TeleG was not clear. The plans were later revised 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 BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

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 only ...

to continue broadcasting alongside BBC Alba. It was confirmed on 22 May 2011, that TeleG would close on 23 May, with BBC Alba launched on 8 June 2011, using its old EPG number on Freeview.

External links

TeleG (Wayback Machine)
(Official website rchived
Media UK info on TeleG
{{Television in Scotland Scottish Gaelic mass media Defunct television channels in Scotland Television channels and stations established in 1999 1999 establishments in Scotland 2011 disestablishments in Scotland Television channels and stations disestablished in 2011