Gaelic Media Service

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The Gaelic Media Service (GMS) was constituted by the Communications Act of 2003 to replace the Gaelic Broadcasting Committee. In addition to the former mandate to fund programme production and development, training, audience research and related activities, the new Service was given new powers to make, schedule and commission programmes and the authority to seek a broadcast licence. This gave GMS the impetus to pursue its vision of managing a sustainable Gaelic media service that is vibrant, comprehensive, cost-effective, contemporary, and reflective of the finest quality of public service broadcasting. It also enabled the pursuit of the key objective: the establishment of a dedicated Gaelic television channel. This is essential if Gaelic broadcasting is to thrive in a multi-channel and multi-media environment on the one hand and to provide effective support to Gaelic linguistic and cultural development on the other.

The Communications Act specifies that “the functions of the Service shall be to secure that a wide and diverse range of high quality programmes in Gaelic are broadcast or otherwise transmitted so as to be available to persons in Scotland.” The GMS is co-funding the launch of the Gaelic Digital Service.