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Gaelic TV channel goes live

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Published Date: 20 September 2008
By Claire Smith
THE UK's first Gaelic language television channel went live last night.
BBC Alba, which has been ten years in the making, launched by taking over BBC2 for 90 minutes.

Programme makers hope that documentaries about US tycoon Donald Trump and French footballer Zinedine Zidane will attract new viewers and have signed up Chewin' The Fat star Greg Hemphill to play Elvis in a 1970s drama.

The head of service for BBC Alba, Margaret Mary Murray, said: "The Gaelic audience will benefit first and foremost, but we also hope that the channel will appeal to an audience across Scotland.

"Our programmes will be subtitled in English, and we hope we will deliver programmes on subjects that will appeal to mainstream Scotland."

The culture minister, Linda Fabiani, said:

"The channel will play a key role in promoting Gaelic and making it accessible to a national audience. It will also make a significant contribution to ensuring a sustainable and successful future for Gaelic."

It will be available on satellite and cable throughout the UK, with content available online. It will not be available on Freeview before 2010.





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  • Last Updated: 20 September 2008 12:06 AM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Guga II,

Rockall 20/09/2008 01:30:57
Why are the EBC going to delay showing it on Freeview till 2010? The areas outside the cities in Scotland do not have cable, and not that many people have satellite TV.

2

Chaplin,

20/09/2008 07:16:08
I'll be interested to see the viewing figures once the initial launch euphoria wears off.
It takes an awful lot of staying power to watch something on a long term basis in a language that you don't understand. Subtitles help but get tedious after a while.
Hopefully it might assist in helping to stem the ever dwindling numbers of gaelic speakers.
3

Hugo of Garven,

20/09/2008 07:38:58
I suspect a lot will depend on how good and how effective is the feedback from Gaelic viewers.

I live in hope.
4

Colin Wilson,

Aberdeen 20/09/2008 09:09:45
The UK authorities and the Scottish Unionists are allowing this to happen only now, when they can be sure there's no longer any possibility of saving Gaelic as a living language spoken by entire communities. It suits them very well if Scottish people see their national identity as being derived from a dying language, which is why they're now giving it such prominence.

If they were sincere about saving Gaelic, they'd have done this fifty years ago.
5

Eric D,

Alba 20/09/2008 13:03:50
4: Good points, Pan-Britishness and the complete assimilation into England has always been their goal.This channel is anathema to the Brit-Scots.
6

Chaplin,

20/09/2008 14:32:31
#s 4 & 5

Good grief, Does Mcains sponsor those chips on your shoulders.
7

Colin Wilson,

Aberdeen 20/09/2008 15:25:42
Re #6 : it's surprising how some people still think that ridicule is a convincing form of discussion.

Eric D and I are just telling it like it is. The inferiorisation of distinctly Scottish cultural forms is an integral part of the British "Establishment's" control over this country. For example, when my wife and I wanted to be married in Scots (NB not Gaelic) this year, Aberdeen's senior registrar refused to conduct the ceremony because of the language we wanted to hold it in. The hostile attitude here speaks for itself. (In the end, we were married in Scots in another area, but this was no thanks to Dennis Stuart.)

 

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