On the 8th of June 2011, the Gaelic-language TV service BBC Alba launched on the Freeview platform.
The station, which launched in 2008, has previously been available to Sky and Virgin viewers, is now available from Freeview transmitters in Scotland, and can be found on Freeview Channel 8. The channel’s normal broadcasting hours are 5pm to midnight.
There is some controversy over the launch of BBC Alba on Freeview, however. There was not enough space on the BBC’s Freeview allocation to add BBC Alba, and something has to be removed in Scotland to make way for TV channel. What’s had to go, are some of the radio stations. 13 BBC radio stations operate on Freeview, and ten of these are switched off when Alba goes on air in the evening.
Between 5pm and midnight on weekdays, 4pm and 1am Saturdays, and 4pm to midnight on Sundays, Freeview viewers in Scotland now no longer can listen the following:
- BBC Radio 1
- BBC Radio 2
- BBC Radio 3
- BBC Radio 4
- BBC Radio 4 Extra
- BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra
- BBC Radio Scotland
- BBC World Service
- BBC Asian Network
- BBC Radio nan Gàidheal
The BBC’s decision to remove these national stations from Freeview in Scotland has caused some upset . Niko from our forum has said:
“I feel highly aggrieved and even, to some extent insulted… I am absolutely furious and consider the BBC’s behaviour in this to be entirely unsatisfactory and without any respect whatsoever to its listeners.”
There’s discussion about this in our forum – See BBC Radio Stations Missing From Freeview
If you’re affected by the BBC’s removal of these services, or alternatively, pleased that BBC Alba is now available on your Freeview box, please add your comment below.
Thanks to Ray Cathode for the updates
Sorry but your article is wrong. There are 13 BBC Radio channels on Freeview, and ten of them are timesharing with BBC ALBA in Scotland only. The three that are still on 24/7 are R1X, R5L (and not as you reported) and 6Music albeit at reduced bitrates.
The hours of BBC ALBA and hence when the ten BBC radios are unavailable on Freeview are 5pm-midnight M-F, 4pm-1am Sat, 4pm-midnight Sun.
The BBC have said that the three 24/7 radios are the most popular “not on FM” but the BBC Trust had asked for the “Digital only” radios to be retained if possible. It seems that the BBC management do not think that R5L on MW is widely available in Scotland.
See my website for full & correct details.
Thanks for the update Ray.
Like many people born and bred in scotland i cannot speak nor understand galic, and with all due respect dont particularly want to listen or watch programes which are made for this channel. The use of my license fee to provide it is questionable as i was never consulted, my same money pays for these radio stations and I like radio 2 ,so why am I not getting my share of them as are people elsewhere in UK. One nation dividing itself by language is sinister and smacks of ethnic bias of worse. come on BBC trustees get some sense of proportion and give the radio stations back.
I was also born and bred, and live in Scotland. Gaelic is not used anywhere I find myself in Scotland and yet I am loosing radio channels to accommodate a handful of people who seem to wish to remain in the distant past. I am very disturbed by this kind of decision being made by a so called public broadcast company.
well i must say, bravo for Radio 4 extra, now if i could only listen to it, i appreciate the fact it is turned off 1hr before i finish work, i wonder if this is repeated in areas where no one speaks Kernow, Manx and Cymraeg too, as far as i know Gaelic is only used in Scotland to make outsiders feel uncomfortable in Public Houses.
Give me my radio 4 extra over Freeview back!
I agree with Phil on June 27th, allowing a minority, nay a miniscule (<1%) language to displace a main stream transmission is beyond belief.
Peter Christy
Very annoyed at the disappearance of the stations from Freeview and also at the way it appears to have been done. Radio Four is the least worst thing the Beeb has left in my opinion.
I think this is terrible. BBC radio should be available to all, and the proportion of people who listen to these radio stations totally outweigh the people who are listening to Radio Alba. I cannot see any reason that would justify this decision.
Words fail me. Gaelic has less than 80,000 speakers, and an already significant number of Gaelic language programming on the normal BBC channels in Scotland, so what possible reason is there for allowing an entire channel to remove the BBC radio channels?
Just to put this in context – Gaelic has always been a minority language in Scotland. Despite what the Gaelic mafia would have you believe, it was never widely spoken outside the Western Isles and West Highlands. The impression that it’s part of all Scots’ heritage is something they like to convey (“Speaking Our Language”? No, “Speaking Someone Else’s Language, actually).
A friend of mine from the Islands believes Gaelic TV exists as a nice little sinecure for Gaelic speakers who could never hope to get a job in the media any other way.
The support from the taxpayer which Gaelic enjoys throughout Scotland is massively out of proportion to the number of speakers. I was not particularly happy with that situation before. Now that a pointless, moribund minority language is actually displacing radio channels which I enjoy AND PAY FOR, I’m furious.
Reverse this utterly ludicrous decision and end the toadying to the Gaelic mafia.
I too am absolutely furious about losing Radio 4 on freeview after 4pm. I’m a big fan of PM with Eddie Mair. No-one asked me but then I’m just a license payer. I know of nobody who speaks Gaelic. There must be a few but surely not enough to warrant this level of preferrebtial treatment.
The BBC did a similar thing with Newsnight (now known as Newsnicht) a few years ago. Switching over at 11pm to the aforementioned Newsnicht. Which is akin to watching a debate of international significance to abruptly cutting off and going the equivalent of ‘A cat had to rescued from a tree in Auchtermuchty’
Is this a sop to the Nationalists? If so beware if the SNP ever achieve independance. We’ll get perpetual re-runs of the Scheme and the like.
Disgusted…..
Have you tried turning your radio’s on ? .. plenty radio stations
True Gaelic is spoken by few today but at one time it was spoken in most areas of Scotland, just look at the place names, most are anglicized now and monoglots fail to see this.
Its very ignorant the way some Scots view and treat their native Gaelic language, go to Wales and you will find a nation that is proud to learn and speak their own language, not the one that has been imposed on them.
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/
Gaelic is the native language for scotland and should be spoken everywhere and I completely disagree that its a waste of taxpayers money etc being brought up on an island I went to Gaelic school and it did me no harm to learn the language even though my mum didn’t speak it she learned to understand it, and when my daughter who is 4months old is old enough I will be sending her to my nearest Gaelic school even though her dad doesn’t understand it or speak the language he agrees that she should be put to Gaelic school as it is part of Scottish history and the Scottish language! U should be proud to live in Scotland and want to learn the language of ur country.
As for the radio channels cut off I don’t think its right that Scotland now don’t get the chance to listen to football games when they are on the radio if u don’t have sky or there isn’t a TV station that is showing the game its usually on a radio station but u can’t even listen to it as they get cut off just before a game kicks off which isn’t fair in my opinion.
Why does R.1 Extra get 24 hr broadcasting rights when its target audience, Afro Caribeans, number less than 10 000 people in Scotland? Radio 4 Extra is much more popular UK wide but gets cut off at 5pm till midnight in Scotland. What about MAJORITY rights, BBC, especially when the minority you’re trying to serve barely exists (and I don’t mean the Gaels)?
I had just discovered that I could listen to Radio 2 in the evening through my television in the living room, so saving me having to buy a radio, when the signal was switched off! There are some excellent programmes on in the evening. Now I’m back to listening in the kitchen when there is nothing on TV that I want to watch. What are the viewing figures for BBC Alba?
I do not buy the argument that because it is part of Scottish history therefore we have to have imposed on us. If you follow that to its conclusion then we also need to have BBC Scots and BBC Latin or even BBC Errgg going back to the caveman era?