On Friday night, the new Gaelic TV channel, BBC Alba, finally launched.
Long pushed for, the channel has been the focus of many movers and shakers in the Gaelic media/political/activist world for nigh on 20 years. Since the early 1990s, the BBC and STV were forced by an Act of Parliament to carry additional Gaelic programming. Even though there was £8m for 160 hours of originated TV available from the government, this wasn’t something that the broadcasters took to with alacrity. Instead, they either shunted Gaelic programming off prime time into the wee small hours (STV), or in the case of the BBC, fulfilled their duty however were painfully aware of the sacrifice in audience they were making. The reasonable logic for both broadcasters being, why run Gaelic TV shows in prime slots when English programming can attract larger audiences?
Put in this context, it isn’t any wonder that Gaels have long yearned for an all-too-Braveheart ”home of our own”; a TV channel where the language can roam unconstrained by the realities of terrestrial scheduling in an increasingly competitive market.
That phrase be careful what you wish for springs to mind. Just in terms of (very) basic sums. In the past, there was £8m to make 160 original hours a year. Now, there is £14m to broadcast five hours a day (approximately 90 minutes of which will be new). That is around 540 originated hours a year. A tripling of the output, with less than double the budget. The per hour budget is going from £50,000 to considerably less than £25,000. Ouch.
It gets a little confusing, as the BBC is putting in an additional £7m that covers existing radio and online activity, plus new playout and operational costs. However despite this, there still are additional costs that I’m assuming inevitably must come out of the £14m channel budget. For example, money to reversion acquired shows and pay for the repeats that fill the remaining 3.5 hours a day, the administration of the channel, marketing and press activity.
My figures are approximate and simple. But what they demonstrate is that for even the most creative producer (and they’ll be hard to find on the money), trying to make quality programming on budgets which are less than half what they were pre-Channel will be a real challenge. Let alone then attracting enough people to the channel to watch it.
Malcy writes 'today' on Garry beach. Picture by Sam.
The biggest concern for the channel is creating a Gaelic ghetto by taking the lion’s share of programming off terrestrial and onto digital. Especially considering not all the digital audience will be able to access the channel, as it is only going out on Sky and Freesat. While getting onto the Freeview platform post-digital switchover in 2010 will help, in the meantime being a satellite only, digital only TV channel makes attracting audiences very difficult.
As an aside, eight years ago, the Outer Hebrides – where most of the Gaelic speakers live – had the most Sky subscriptions per head of population in the UK. Would be interested to know if this is still true post-Freeview launch. My mum, who is my barometer for all things Gaelic, got Sky specifically so she could watch the channel.
I used be Head of New Media for a very small digital TV channel, and we had to work incredibly hard to market our shows via as cheap a method as possible. In the main, press to promote shows to magazines and newspaper listings (a Pick of the Day was worth its weight in gold), and on air cross-promotion from our terrestrial TV partners (the most valuable marketing of all). Plus, focussing on the web to act as an additional distribution method. While the BBC brand will help the channel’s profile, as will on air mentions on the terrestrial output, the question remains whether this will be enough to attract people’s attention to the channel in an already crowded market (assuming they can afford the access in the first place).
Taking all this into account, as well as the sheer cost of running a channel before you even make an hour of programming, it isn’t any surprise many niche content creators are by-passing the traditional satellite channel model and instead are looking to the web as a much cheaper method of getting programming straight to an audience. As everything to do with Gaelic, there is no simple answer. The majority of speakers are older (sorry Mum), and therefore it can’t be assumed they will be happy doing their viewing over the Internet (let alone the issues around the quality of internet connectivity in rural communities such as the Highlands and Islands). Having said that, it will be interesting to see the traffic figures for Gaelic programmes on the iPlayer (although none are there yet), and how many of them are coming from a non-Gaelic (or non-Highland and Island or even Scottish) audience.
As someone who has been there before in both TV and the Internet, and who cares passionately about the future of the language, it will be fascinating to watch BBC Alba find its feet and create programming that is both good, and more importantly, is watched.
I think you’re right Jen.
I’m genuinely delighted that BBC Alba exists. Now the language on the channel has to be decoupled from the region. I will stop watching the channel if it’s just more endless features on this is the Western Isles or that in Skye all accommpanied by twiddly dee music.
If the BBC created a channel for Bury St Edmunds and South East Suffolk and then produced programme after programme about tiny microstories from the microregion, there’d be an outcry: “What a waste of licence money!” Do it in Gaelic and it’s OK.
If commissioners are courageous and produce some genuine out-of-the-box programming for the majority of airtime about other things than Western Isles history, they keep me viewing…
The fact that so many people have watch the launch of BBC Alba is evidence that a) content MUST be available online and b) there are many committted people wjho want it to work.
As a Welsh speaker living in Melbourne Australia I watch content on http://www.s4c.org.au and listen to Radio Cymru online for about 2 hrs a week. The diaspora is part of the audience and a potentially lucrative source of income.
Some questions now: any talk of audience figures? Any talk of releasing the brilliant version of “Alba” on CD?
Interesting comments – as a loathesome incomer to the Hebrides (only lived here 25 years) with a smattering of Gaelic and involved in one of the unsuccessful pilots that was screened shortly after the launch of BBC Alba, I have a less than rosy view of the channel.
What checks and balances are being put in place to avoid the old bad habit – namely nepotism?
Am I being overly cynical because my production – Lostbost – was not selected to be developed to a full series, despite being very well received. We are an experienced theatre touring company that is expanding into television with fresh people and ideas – but guess what, we have been treated appallingly with very unreasonable contract conditions and utterly useless people foisted onto us. We see the same old usual suspects again and again on the channel. Is this normal?