Why are there Gaelic programmes on BBC Scotland instead of English language programming?
A sizeable minority of Scots speak Gaelic and in relative terms receive few television programmes in that language. BBC Scotland has a commitment to public service broadcasting in a national and international context and its governing body, the Broadcasting Council for Scotland, believes that as part of that commitment the BBC in Scotland must take a lead in Gaelic broadcasting. With the limited number of hours available to us for this output it is inevitable that, in balancing Scottish scheduling priorities, some Network programmes will be dropped or rescheduled, although we strive to maintain as full a schedule in Scotland as possible. Why do some programmes not have subtitles? BBC subtitles provide a transcript of the TV soundtrack, helping deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers to follow programmes. They have been available since the early 1980s. No other UK broadcaster matches the proportion of programmes subtitled by the BBC. It is committed to subtitling 100% of BBC TV programmes by 2
