The Hoose of Alba

Football, festivals and Dolly Parton repeats have done the trick for BBC Alba, according to the network's boss Margaret Mary Murray. But the secretive Gàidhealtachd apparently won't reveal their official audience figures for a full six months after the move to Freeview (which k.o'd a number of BBC Radio Networks).

The spin given to the Scotsman is that ratings are up 40%, or 100,000. Ms Murray tells the paper "A significant number of viewers are non-Gaelic speakers and what we find is that Gaelic speakers and non-Gaelic speakers view the channel in different ways. Gaelic speakers tune in to BBC Alba primarily for news, current affairs, entertainment and drama when we are able to offer it. They use the channel like English speakers view BBC1 or ITV1. The three subjects that pull non-Gaelic speakers in are documentaries, music programmes and sport".

Dangerous talk, if the BBC Trust hears it - growing an audience outside your target - and may we ask the cost ?

BBC Alba insists on using TNS, a Scottish polling company, to produce its figures, arguing that BARB, used by most other broadcasters, has insufficient representation amongst Gaelic speakers. Ms Murray's news suggests to me that Alba should be told to report figures from BARB; quicker, cheaper and transparent, if perhaps uncomfortable.

• On its launch in September 2008, Alba claimed 610,000 viewers. By November and December, that had fallen back to 400,000.  Since then, few figures have been published, but an average of 220,000 was reported to the BBC Trust in 2009, and figures of 200,000 early in 2010.  In the 2001 census, there were 58,650 Gaelic speakers in Scotland.