BBC Alba bosses are celebrating what is believed to be their biggest ratings smash after claiming an "extraordinary interest" was shown in newco Rangers' first game.
The Gaelic TV broadcaster is yet to receive viewing figures for their live coverage of the Glasgow football club's Ramsdens Cup match away to Brechin on Sunday, but insiders believe they will be much larger than for previous sporting encounters on the channel.
Fans tuned in to the station in their thousands, despite the match commentary being in Gaelic. The Ibrox side's fans were given 2500 tickets for the game at the Angus ground which has a capacity of just over 4000.
A spokesman for BBC Alba said yesterday: "An indication of the impact of yesterday's match on BBC Alba's TV and iPlayer viewing figures will be available in due course.
"However, it is clear from informal feedback there was extraordinary interest in this match and BBC Alba looks forward to broadcasting further SFL and SPL matches in future.
"Sport is an important part of BBC Alba's programming and has been extremely well-received by both Gaelic speaking and non-Gaelic speaking audiences."
Rangers won Sunday's cup clash 2-1 after extra time.
The Ibrox side have been drawn to play Falkirk away in the next round of the Ramsdens Cup.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article