BBC to launch Gaelic language service

According to MG, the BBC Trust has granted permission for the BBC to launch a Gaelic language service.

I'm much more interested in finding out why the BBC Alba site is displaying the BBC1 balloon!



Any Gaelic speakers out there care to elaborate on what it is advertising?

A Gaelic Service has been in the Pipeline for a while now, I am quite sure of that.

IT LIVES!!!

along with SMG, and a spiecal channel is to get set up

Re: the appearance of the Balloon, I would take a guess that it's been selected as a 'General BBC' image of sorts, until a specific one is found to represent that particular page.

Or, it might be that whoever made the decision could simply have a fondness for the Balloon as an icon - and who can blame them?

£4m a year. So that's £1m per Gaelic speaker then.

What an incredible waste of money for a dead language.

Before anyone goes on about Gaelic schools, or any of that nonsense, these are still very much in the minority. And Gaelic speakers are already well served by their own radio station, STV and BBC Scotland... sorry Alba opt-outs already.

This is not Wales and Gaelic is not our national language.

This money would have been far better spent on an English language BBC Scotland service.

You read the article wrong: by not being on Freeview, they're saving £4 million a year.

The total cost of the service is £21 million a year. That's £5.35 million per Gaelic-speaker.

Bozz

I read that earlier as well, so I don't know how I got those mixed up.

But as you point out, it's an even more ridiculous sum to spend. A damning indictment of BBC Scotland's lack of priorities.

I thought they'd ruled this out not so long ago.

Perhaps it should be a joint effort between BBC Scotland and BBC NI, now my knowledge of Scots Gaelic is limited but from what Ive seen its practically the same language as Irish Gaelic so there may well be a couple of hundred more viewers in NI as well.

Hear hear...

It's probably not so much the balloon, but the castle that's important, Eilean Donan Castle. Not sure what particular significance it has to the Gaelic language in Scotland though ?

http://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/Chatelaine/EDC/edc-history.htm