£millions sunk into BBC Alba but is anyone out there listening?
By Lucy Ashton
BBC Scotland’s Gaelic channel is offering a money-spinning contract to media and public relations experts to help boost ratings.
Launched in 2008, BBC Alba is funded to the tune of around £13 million a year by the Scottish Government – and also receives £9 million in licence fee contributions.
Despite this abundance of cash, the channel has struggled to attract viewers and recent figures show that just three per cent of adults use it to get their daily news.
Now, according to the Scottish Daily Express, bosses at parent company MG Alba are spending more than £80,000 on a PR firm to help expand the BBC Alba audience. The Edinburgh-based firm 3X1 Group will be tasked with raising “brand awareness”
The firm is also in charge of handling PR for the Scottish Government’s trams inquiry and the recent hospitals inquiry. A notice published online says 3X1 will aim to help BBC Alba “reach new, younger audiences with a multi-platform, digital-first approach”.
MG Alba believes comedy and drama will “be key to the channel’s efforts to engage with younger audiences” on iPlayer and social media.
The BBC as a UK public corporation should aim to appeal to all citizens. Support for non-English broadcast medium I believe is an important part of the BBC’s mission.
In Wales support for the language, also declining in younger generations, is through BBC Cymru and S4C, Welsh channel 4 is funded to nearly £90 million.
I don’t speak Gaelic but I watch both BBC Alba ( and S4C). They have some excellent programmes; I highlight ‘DIY Donnie’ from BBC Alba and the long running soap ‘Pobol y Cwm ‘ Trans. People and Valley. On S4C.
On the scale of what many public corporations pay for PR and Management consultants 80K does not seem disproportionate for the task.