Bringing The UK To The World And The World To The UK

From the USA to China, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, Â鶹Éç Scotland journalists have reported from across the globe on the stories that are important to Scottish audiences. The conflict in the Middle East, the Beijing Olympics and the US primaries and presidential inauguration all received extensive and in-depth analysis on output across broadcast platforms.

The travels – and travails – of Mark Beaumont (shown here) in his successful attempt to beat the Guinness around the world cycling challenge were captured in a four-part documentary for Â鶹Éç One Scotland – repeated on network and on Â鶹Éç World – and via a daily online posting. The network programme brought in 2.8 million viewers, 20% audience share and plaudits across the board.

The Culture Show, produced on alternate weeks from Glasgow and London, went to China to look at the country’s contemporary cultural scene and Â鶹Éç Scotland Learning produced China Stories, films available on a dedicated Â鶹Éç Scotland website which were both linked to the curriculum and produced in English and in Gaelic.

For its part, the Gaelic department produced another series of the critically acclaimed European current affairs programme Eòrpa, which continued to scrutinise issues from across the continent.

Online, about 600,000 unique users each week accessed Â鶹Éç Scotland’s web services from outside of the UK during 2008/09.

Building Digital Britain

The new Gaelic digital service, Â鶹Éç ALBA, launched in September 2008 with an exciting and adventurous programme mix designed to attract an audience beyond its immediate target of Gaelic-speaking viewers. From Scottish Premier League coverage to childrens, documentaries, arts, music and entertainment programming, its varied content offering is complemented by a redesigned bbcalba.co.uk website.

The product of a unique collaboration between Â鶹Éç Scotland and MG Alba, the service has been warmly welcomed by critics, commentators and audiences.

Also introduced this year were the Â鶹Éç Radio Scotland Zones. Five themed zones, available overnight on Â鶹Éç Radio Scotland and, ondemand online, offer aggregations of Â鶹Éç Scotland audio content, grouped around Comedy; Arts; Classical and Jazz; New Music; and Celtic Music and History.

Â鶹Éç Scotland Learning has also been at the forefront of helping to build a digital Scotland, through online content production, involvement with outreach activities such as the Blast! and RaW initiatives and in helping to establish a Scottish Digital Literacy Network, in conjunction with Ofcom, the Scottish Government, Scottish Screen, Learning & Teaching Scotland and other interested parties.