Campaigners have warned of a "major blow" to Gaelic television after George Osborne quietly axed UK Government funding.
The Chancellor did not renew a £1 million-a-year grant from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
S4C, the Welsh channel, has also seen a large chunk of its support cut as it also emerged that BBC Three is to move online from February.
The £1m amounts to around five per cent of Gaelic channel BBC Alba’s budget, but 100 per cent of the cash it receives from UK ministers.
Two years ago the then Culture Secretary Maria Miller described the service as playing a "crucial role in the cultural and economic well-being of Scotland".
She also said that the Scottish Gaelic language was an "integral part of our incredibly diverse culture".
And she said that the sum provided the "funding certainty that the channel needs to continue bringing high-quality Gaelic language programmes to the small screen".
DCMS sources insisted that the two previous £1m payments were “one-off” support for the service.
A source said: “No further funding is currently planned”.
Donald Campbell, chief executive of MG ALBA, the organisation that runs the BBC Alba station, said: “We are aware of the decision made by DCMS to cut our funding.
He added that he was grateful for the support received this year and last and would "continue to engage with DCMS as we seek other ways for the UK Government to support Gaelic broadcasting”.
Gaelic television is also funded by the Scottish Government to the tune of £12.8m.
The SNP called on DCMS to abandon the plans.
SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell said: “The decision to remove all UK Government funding for Gaelic broadcasting in Scotland will come as a major blow to BBC Alba and is yet another sign that Scotland is under-served by the public service broadcasting status quo.
He said that BBC Alba serves an audience of 700,000 people, many more than the number of Gaelic speakers.
"It is no surprise so many people are watching when they are producing quality dramas like Bannan – the first Gaelic drama made by the BBC for decades – and are providing coverage of Scottish rugby," he said.
“While the BBC is a world-renowned broadcaster, it is currently under-serving Scotland.
“People will rightly ask why the UK Government is cutting funding for a successful public sector broadcaster in the midst of the BBC Charter Review?
"They should abandon these misguided plans, which will be detrimental to the development of the language and the Scottish creative sector.”
The UK Government funding was guaranteed by Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem Highland MP, when he was chief secretary of the Treasury.
The Scotland Bill currently going through Westminster will also devolve the power make appointments to the governing board of the channel to the Scottish Government.
DCMS said that Conservative ministers were committed to reviewing minority language broadcasting as part of the ongoing BBC Charter Review.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel