Hebrides News Today

By Annie Smith

The public are being asked to contributed to an online survey about the value of Gaelic channel BBC Alba and whether the channel should be made available on Freeview.

Currently BBC ALBA is available on satellite and via BBC iPlayer, it aims to serve Gaelic speakers, those learning the language, those that might wish to learn, and those interested in the language and culture.

The BBC Trust have the responsibility of getting the best out of the BBC for licence fee payers and this has led to their current Public Value Test for BBC Alba.

One of the conditions of the channel’s operation was that after a year of broadcasting it should be examined to asses its performing.

This review is in two parts. Part one will look at two key areas: whether the channel is achieving wide appeal to viewers beyond existing Gaelic speakers and contributing to the broader educational strategy for the language.

Part two will consider whether to make the channel available to more people by putting it on Freeview.

There is only a limited amount of space on Freeview that the BBC can use. The BBC Executive has suggested a way it could find room for BBC ALBA. They would do this by removing of the BBC’s network radio stations, from Freeview in Scotland-only, when BBC ALBA is on air (usually between the hours of 17:00 and 23:30 each weekday and from 16:00 at weekends). This would allow BBC ALBA to be on air at this time instead.

The radio stations that would be affected are BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 live, 5 live Sports Extra, BBC 1Xtra, BBC Asian Network, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 7, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and BBC World Service.

These stations would still be available as usual via a combination of FM/AM/LW, DAB and online. We will also decide whether the current Gaelic zones on BBC Two should remain in place.

To make your views on BBC Alba known click on the survey link at the end of the article. The closing date for your views is January 18th.

https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-alba-review/consultation/consult_view

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