Gaelic is an integral part of Scotland’s culture and identity and providing a sustainable future for the language in Scotland is a stated policy aim of the Scottish Government.  Significant progress has been made to enhance the status and sustainability of Gaelic, by expanding the provision of Gaelic medium education (GME), establishing BBC Alba and expanding Gaelic arts and publishing.   We are now concentrating on accelerating measures that will achieve an increase in the number of Gaelic speakers.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig welcomes the BBC Trust’s support for Gaelic and firmly believes that radio, television and on-line Gaelic services have significant potential to advance the Bòrd’s own aims and to help realise the aspirations of the Gaelic community.

BBC Alba has a vital role to play in relation to provision of opportunities to learn and use Gaelic, to enable its use in a range of employment sectors, to increase its visibility, supporting its status and providing impetus for continuing corpus development.

The Bòrd believes that BBC Alba has, since its launch on 19 September 2008, achieved its stated aims of enhancing the service available to Gaelic speakers, the service for those learning the language and those that might wish to learn.  BBC Alba also offers a window on Gaelic language and culture to any who may be interested.  It reflects and supports Gaelic culture, identity and heritage in a positive manner.  By achieving a core audience in excess of 200,000 viewers per week it has quickly established its credentials and has significant support and brand awareness amongst the Scottish public.

BBC Alba has demonstrable creative, cultural, linguistic, social and economic benefits.  It taps the creativity of the Gaelic community, strengthens our cultural infrastructure, reinforces language development, bonds Gaelic speakers socially as a community and draws a wider population into it.  The channel also creates employment which would otherwise not exist in peripheral and central areas, in every sense gets to the parts that other media do not reach.  At the same time, its audience reach demonstrates that a significant segment of the Scottish population accesses it.

BBC Alba is, therefore, a boon to Scotland as a whole, a significant Scottish asset, as well as a crucial element in the revitalisation and normalisation of Gaelic.

BBC Alba sits comfortably within UK Government policy as set out in the provisions of the 2003 Broadcasting Act, the European Charter for Minority Languages and with Scottish Government policy as evidenced in the 2005 Gaelic Language Act and the National Plan for Gaelic.  It compares favourably with the performance of the media systems of our nearest minority language neighbours in Wales and Ireland, whilst being comparatively underfunded.

Furthermore, it lies at the heart of public service broadcasting provision, in all respects bar one.  It is based on the traditional Reithian principles of providing information, education and entertainment, and meets the additional contemporary public service broadcasting criteria of providing a genuine alternative to other - and particularly commercial - services, widening consumer choice.  BBC Alba thus counteracts market failure, providing a service which commercial television could not provide; where it deviates from other public service provision is that it is not yet available on Freeview.  That defect should now be remedied.

The Bòrd understands that for every Gaelic speaker BBC ALBA has attracted since its launch, it has attracted at least three non-Gaelic speakers with music, sport and factual programmes having particular appeal for them.  Despite BBC Alba being handicapped by not being available on Freeview, it is making a major contribution to raising awareness of Gaelic among non-Gaelic speakers and encouraging positive attitudes to the language as well as significantly enlarging and enriching the Scottish content available to all viewers.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig believes that BBC Alba should be available on as wide a range of platforms as possible including Freeview and cable, and the BBC iPlayer.  The Bòrd believes it would not be acceptable to have access to BBC Alba only via the internet.  The computer has not yet replaced the television in the majority of Scotland’s homes.  Areas with a large concentration of Gaelic speakers are often the areas where Broadband speeds are the poorest, making access to BBC Alba through the internet non-viable.  The Bòrd also considers it highly desirable to sustain Gaelic television output on BBC 2 Scotland, enriching the offering available to viewers of that channel, with a selection of the best of BBC Alba’s programming.

The Bòrd values the support received directly and indirectly from BBC Alba and its staff and considers BBC Alba to be a key partner in delivering an ambitious plan to create a new generation of Gaelic speakers.  Its role in the enhancement of Gaelic education provision at all levels should not be underestimated.  BBC Alba has demonstrated its willingness to contribute to formal and informal learning initiatives at all levels and it has demonstrated its potential to support learners at all stages. 

The Bòrd recognises and is encouraged by BBC Alba’s commitment to increasing the skills base and employment opportunities available to Gaelic speakers and learners.  The creation of opportunities for a wide range of new talent will be crucial to securing Gaelic’s future.  The creation of a new generation of Gaelic speakers is dependent on attracting and retaining young people and the Bòrd believes that BBC Alba has a crucial role in ensuring this happens.

The success of BBC Alba is testimony to the unique collaboration between BBC and MG Alba. The Bòrd believes that the future success of BBC Alba is dependent on two key actions:

1          Making BBC Alba available on Freeview with immediate effect;

2          Increasing the funding available to BBC Alba to enable it to sustain and develop its programming.

Bòrd na Gàidhlig urges the BBC Trust to support BBC Alba by recommending immediate transmission on Freeview with increased resources to enhance and develop the service output.

Background note:

BÒRD NA GÀIDHLIG ROLE & FUNCTIONS

A key milestone in Gaelic development was reached when the Scottish Parliament passed the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.  The 2005 Act established Bòrd na Gàidhlig (‘the Bòrd’) as a statutory body charged with securing the status of Gaelic as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to English.  The Bòrd has specific statutory functions to promote, and to provide advice to Ministers and public bodies on matters relating to the Gaelic language, Gaelic culture and Gaelic education.  The Bòrd is required to exercise these functions with a view to increasing the number of users of Gaelic, and with a view to encouraging and enabling increased access to and understanding of Gaelic.

The 2005 Act placed a duty on the Bòrd to produce a National Plan for Gaelic and this key policy document, approved by Scottish Ministers in March 2007, provides a blueprint for the future development of Gaelic.  The National Plan for Gaelic is underpinned by four well-established and interrelated language planning principles, and makes recommendations on how to support Gaelic in the home, community, workplace and place of learning through language acquisition, usage, status, and corpus development.