Funding boost for Gaelic TV shows

GAELIC television shows would receive a massive increase in funding from the public purse under the SNP’s proposals for BBC reform.

The Scottish Government wants to put the BBC Alba channel on the same footing as S4C, the Welsh language channel.

But there are only 57,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland, while 562,000 people in Wales speak Welsh.

BBC Alba’s ‘reach’ among the Scottish population has also dipped to just 16 per cent over the last 1 months, with Scottish football league highlights and live matches thought to make up a substantial chunk of that.

Currently, the BBC supplies 520 hours of in-house programming to S4C with a value of £20million, compared to 230 hours to BBC Alba, valued at £5million. The BBC Scotland Audience Council 2014-15 report noted that the channel remains highly dependent on repeats and there was a small dip in the channel’s audience for the first time since its inception in 200 .

But a Scottish Government report said that among Gaelic speakers, the reach of BBC Alba has increased from 72 to 73 per cent over the past 1 months, and audience approval remains high.

The government report states: ‘There is a clear need to make indigenous language broadcasting sustainable and for its important

education and societal values to be more widely acknowledged in this process. The channel also provides significant economic benefit through its commissioning model which ensures growth in the creative industries in Scotland.’

BBC Alba is a joint partnership between the BBC and private firm MG Alba.

The report adds: ‘In particular there is the opportunity to build on the MG Alba model and secure an equitable funding position with that in Wales, where S4C receives additional funding from the UK Government. We ask that the BBC provide the same levels of in-house programming to BBC Alba as they do to S4C.’

MG Alba receives around £13milliona-year of Scottish Government funding. The UK Government previously handed more than £1million-a-year for Gaelic programming, which was protected when Lib Dem Highland MP Danny Alexander was Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

However, in George Osborne’s comprehensive spending review, unveiled last autumn, the £1million funding package was scrapped. The move came after the Department of Culture, Media and Sport was forced to make budget cuts of 5 per cent and S4C is also set to lose some cash.

‘Equal funding with

that in Wales’