BBC RADIO NAN GÀIDHEAL

Transcription

1 1 BBC Trust s Review of the Nations' Radio Stations 2010 BBC RADIO NAN GÀIDHEAL Lèirsinn Research Centre January 2011

2 2 CONTENTS BACKGROUND pg 1 KEY FINDINGS pg 1 MAIN REPORT pg 2 I Aims pg 2 II Method Data Collection and Data Analysis pg 2 III The Respondents Age, Gender, Fluency in Gaelic, Location and Socio economic Status... pg 3 IV Findings pg 3 The Pattern of Radio Listening pg 3 Perceived Value for Money and Response to General Statements.... pg 5 Response to Statements on the BBC s Public Purposes..... pg 8 Sustaining Citizenship and Civil Society pg 9 Reflecting the Nations, Regions and Communities..... pg 12 Promoting Education and Learning pg 15 Stimulating Creativity and Cultural Excellence..... pg 16 Bringing the UK to the World and the World to the UK.... pg 17 Helping to Deliver to the Public the Benefit of Emerging Communications Technologies and Services pg 18 CONCLUSION pg 19

3 1 BBC Trust s Review of the Nations' Radio Stations 2010 BBC RADIO NAN GÀIDHEAL Lèirsinn Research Centre January 2011 BACKGROUND As part of its review of BBC Nations' Radio Stations, in October 2010 the BBC Trust commissioned Lèirsinn Research Centre at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, part of the developing University of the Highlands and Islands, to carry out research on audience reactions to the BBC's Gaelic radio services on Radio nan Gàidheal. The remit of BBC Radio nan Gàidheal is to deliver a comprehensive speech and music service for Gaelic speakers covering a wide range of genres and reflecting the issues, events, cultures and interests of the people of Scotland from a Gaelic perspective, and through the medium of the Gaelic language. The station normally broadcasts for 16 hours each weekday ( ), with 4 hours on Saturday ( ) and 8 on Sunday ( and ). It is available online, on DAB and on digital satellite television, as well as FM. KEY FINDINGS Radio nan Gàidheal is perceived as being a good station which is serving its community well. It is particularly popular and valued by the older and more fluent part of the Gaelic speaking audience. It is generally seen as delivering the BBC s Public Purposes well. There was a high level of approval of the station The chance to hear Gaelic was the major reason (at 70%) for listening Very large majorities felt that the station provided high quality news and programmes There were very high levels of agreement with statements referring to Radio nan Gàidheal support for Gaelic language and culture In general the station was seen as performing well against each of the BBC s six Public Purposes The weakest score concerned its encouragement of digital developments

4 2 MAIN REPORT I. AIMS The overall aim was to find out how well BBC Radio nan Gàidheal was performing against its stated aims as outlined in the Service Licence and in relation to the delivery of the BBC's Public Purposes. In particular the research was designed to test general levels of approval for the station, how the audience saw the aims and purposes of the station, and how the audience perceived the station in relation to the six public purposes of the BBC. II. METHOD Data Collection The research was conducted by postal questionnaire sent out in mid October with the incentive of a 10 retail voucher for all questionnaires returned by the start of November. Lèirsinn's mailing list for the Gaelic television panel (past and present) was used and a total of 580 questionnaires were sent out, the questions having been approved by the commissioners of the research. There were 245 completed questionnaires returned, of which 226 were from Radio nan Gàidheal listeners. The questionnaire, printed in English and Gaelic, was in five sections (see Appendix). Section 1 contained 12 questions concerning general listening patterns to Radio nan Gàidheal, including regularity of listening to specific programmes. Section 2 concerned approval and value for money and contained 12 questions. Section 3 was on the BBC's Public Purposes and included 24 questions covering the six purposes. Section 4 allowed respondents to add their own comments on aspects of the station's service and 93 of the 245 availed themselves of this opportunity (although not all comments were relevant, some, for example, commenting on Gaelic TV). Section 5 contained 6 demographic questions. Data Analysis To provide an overview of listeners' responses to the survey, data for each question have been presented in table form with figures representing the percentage of the total and, where appropriate, the actual number of individual respondents. The tables are presented in Section 1 of the Appendix. With the exception of tables for the first five questions which include all 245 survey respondents, the figures for all other tables are filtered to include only those 226 respondents who were listeners of BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. This was determined by their responses to questions 2 and 4. For section 3, the public purposes, the responses were grouped. Ratings of 5 (agree slightly), 6 (agree strongly) and 7 (completely agree) were combined into a general agree category, while 5 (quite important), 6 (very important) and 7 (vital) were classed together as important. The difference between the percentage who agreed and the percentage who rated important for each category was calculated as the performance gap. To give a deeper insight into the pattern of response from different demographic groups, respondents were categorised based on their response to the questions in Section 5. The categories were: the 16 to 44 and 45+ age groups; male and female; fluent Gaelic speakers and less fluent respondents; Highlands & Islands residents and those living in the Rest of Scotland; and socio economic groups

5 3 ABC1 and C2DE. Further analysis involved cross tabulations of the data to check for any significant differences in the pattern of response across the demographic categories. III. THE RESPONDENTS In all, 245 replies were received, although a few did not fill in all the demographic questions, with between 240 and 243 responding to each question. The respondents overall represented a comprehensive range of the Gaelic community of Scotland covering all age groups over 16, from fully fluent Gaelic speakers to Gaelic learners and included those living in the Central Belt and East of Scotland as well as Highlands and Islands residents. Age A higher proportion of older people responded to the survey than young, with 72% of the returners aged 45 plus, and 28% of them aged from 16 to 44. Gender The balance between genders was 56.3% female and 43.8% male. Gaelic fluency Just over half of the respondents were fluent Gaelic speakers 54.7%, with that number going up to 71.6% when fluent with some hesitation is added. A small number of respondents (7%) had knowledge only of a few basic phrases. Home location More than half the sample lived in either the Western Isles (23.1%) or in the Highlands, including the two regions of Highland Council and Argyll and Bute (38%). Of the remainder, 28.5% were in the Central Belt and 10.3% elsewhere in Scotland. Socio economic status Most (45%) were employed (full time or part time), but a significant number were retired (37.9%). Over two thirds (65.5%) were classified in socio economic groups ABC1. IV. FINDINGS 1 The Pattern of Radio Listening The majority of the sample could receive Radio nan Gàidheal (96.3%) and had listened to the station at some time during the previous four weeks (91%). Most of these listeners were also listeners to other BBC radio stations, with 68.2% having listened to Radio Scotland during the same time period, and 61.2% having listened to other BBC stations. The Radio Scotland listeners were more likely to be male and over 44, with the listeners to other stations more likely to be younger and in ABC1 occupational groups. Of the respondents, 60.8% listened most days, with the figure going up to 77.1% when those tuning in several times a week were added. The most regular listeners were fluent speakers aged 45 or over.

6 4 When listeners did tune in to BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, the length of time was fairly evenly spread through the various periods up to three hours. Overall 70.8% listened to between 30 mins and three hours each day. The heaviest listeners (more than three hours per day) tended to be older fluent speakers, and C2DEs. The majority of the respondents (81.4%) still listen to Radio nan Gàidheal through traditional analogue broadcasts, although significant numbers are now using digital television (26.1%), digital radio (18.6%) and the internet (16.4%). (This question allowed for multiple responses so that these numbers are not exclusive). Many parts of the Highlands and Islands outside the Moray Firth areas are not yet receiving digital radio and so not surprisingly digital radio listeners were more likely to be in the parts of Scotland outside the Highlands and Islands. Listening was usually done at home (87.2%) or while travelling (56.2%). (Again this question allowed multiple responses). The multiple response question on listeners reasons for tuning in to Radio nan Gàidheal yielded a wide range of responses (see Figure 1). Not surprisingly, the chance to hear Gaelic was far ahead of any other response, at 70.4% (with a significant number of respondents coming from the non Highlands and Islands areas). Linked to this was the 39.8% who specifically cited the development of their own Gaelic language skills as a reason. The only other response above 50% was the chance to hear music (56.6%) both contemporary and traditional given that there is a wide range of music on Radio nan Gàidheal. Using the station as a means of getting information was important in various ways -information on what was happening in Gaelic communities (46.9%), in listeners' own communities (33.6%), more general news and current affairs (39.4%), and for weather and travel news (28.3%). 42% listed the station as part of their routine which, while obviously overlapping with other reasons, indicates the role that Radio nan Gàidheal plays in many listeners lives. Figure 1: Reasons for listening to BBC Radio nan Gàidheal (N = 226 respondents) to hear the Gaelic language for music to find out what's happening in Gaelic communities it's part of my routine to help me develop my Gaelic language skills for news, current affairs and political analysis to find out what's happening in my local community to programmes on cultural and historical topics for entertainment for weather and travel news for the presenters for relaxation for companionship for sport for programmes for children and young people Percent 80.0

7 5 Beyond all these reasons, more general social reasons played their part as well listening for entertainment in general (31.9%), for relaxation (15.9%), for companionship (13.3%) and for the presenters themselves (16.4%). The majority (62.7%) did not listen to Gaelic programmes on other radio stations, or only very rarely (17.8%), although this is probably simply a comment on the paucity of Gaelic radio programming available on such stations as Isles FM and Cuillin FM. Most were viewers of Gaelic television, with (in a multiple response question), 61.1% watching Gaelic programmes on BBC2, 60.6% watching BBC ALBA and 35.8% watching Gaelic on STV. The percentage watching Gaelic programmes online was above a quarter, at 27.4%. A significant number also read Gaelic material in newspapers (44.7%). From reactions to the programmes themselves, it is clear that the most listened to portion of Radio nan Gàidheal s output is on weekday mornings. The early morning news programme Aithris na Maidne ( ) tops the list with 46.9% regularly listening to it. The following news headlines gets 35.4% and then the two morning programmes of Coinneach MacIomhair ( ) and Mire ri Mòir ( ) get 30.5% and 35.4% respectively. Few other programmes come anywhere near these. The evening news programme Aithris an Fheasgair ( ) gets 21.7% and the Friday evening music requests and greetings programme Na Dùrachdan ( ) gets 28.3%, but all others are lower than that (apart from the afternoon broadcasts from the annual Mòd in October). As would be expected, some programmes do better with particular sections of the audience. The most notable examples are the two evening programmes which attract a younger audience Siubhal gu Seachd le Pluto ( ) and Rapal ( ). Although for listeners as a whole the combined figures of those who listen regularly and those who listen sometimes are 24.3% and 19.5% respectively, these figures go up to 41.0% and 45.9% amongst those under 45. In summary: Most respondents listen to between 30 minutes and three hours each day Most respondents still listen to the station on traditional analogue radio The major reason for listening was to hear Gaelic, although music from and information about the Gaelic communities were also important Most listeners do not listen to Gaelic on other radio stations but do watch Gaelic TV The most heavily listened to programmes are three main programmes on weekday mornings ( ) 2 Perceived Value for Money Approval and Responses to General Statements. Against a background of a 7.8 (out of 10) approval rating for the BBC in general, Radio nan Gàidheal scored better at 8.1 (see Figure 2). 10 Figure 2: Approval Rating (mean from 1 to 10 scale) mean rating BBC generally (N=220) Radio nan Gàidheal (N= 218)

8 6 There was overwhelming support for Radio nan Gàidheal being value for money. Against a figure of 78.9% who thought the BBC in general was very good or fairly good value, 93.1% thought that of Radio nan Gàidheal. At the other end of the scale, against the 18.7% who thought that the BBC in general was not very good value or not at all good value, only 5.8% thought that of Radio nan Gàidheal. (See Figure 3) Figure 3: Licence fee value for money 69.8 Percentage very good value fairly good value BBC generally (N=209) Radio nan Gàidheal (N=215) not very good value not at all good value Similarly with the responses to the specific statements that were asked, Radio nan Gàidheal achieved better results. Against the 84.7% who agreed strongly or completely that they would miss BBC Radio if it was not there, 90.9% said the same of Radio nan Gàidheal. Less than half said the same of local commercial radio (40.2%) or national commercial radio (29.2%). (See Figure 4). Figure 4: response to "would miss if it wasn't there" statements (N = 195 to 218 respondents) I would miss BBC Radio if it wasn't there 84.7 I would miss BBC Radio nan Gàidheal if it wasn't there 90.8 I would miss local commercial radio if it wasn't there 40.2 I would miss national commercial radio if it wasn't there percentage who agree There was also general, although sometimes less marked, agreement with the more specific statements on Radio nan Gàidheal (see Figure 5).

9 7 Figure 5: response to general statements on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal (N = 212 to 220 respondents) BBC Radio nan Gàidheal has programmes that I want to listen to BBC Radio nan Gàidheal has well made, highquality programmes BBC Radio nan Gàidheal has programmes with new ideas and different approaches BBC Radio nan Gàidheal has programmes that make me think percentage who agree 92.3% agreed that the station had programmes that they want to listen to. 90.8% agreed that Radio nan Gàidheal s programmes were well made and of high quality. 81.6% agreed that the programmes had new ideas. 77.5% agreed that the programmes made them think. In none of these questions did those who disagreed (whether slightly, strongly or completely) add up to as much as 6%. It is also worth noting that fluent speakers tended to agree more strongly with the statements concerning how well made the programmes were and that Radio nan Gàidheal had programmes they wanted to listen to. In summary: Radio nan Gàidheal achieved higher approval rates than the BBC did in general 93.1% thought that Radio nan Gàidheal was good value 90.9% said they would miss Radio nan Gàidheal if it was not there There was strong agreement that the programmes were well made and were programmes which listeners wanted

10 8 3 Responses to Statements on the BBC s Public Purposes Generally, Radio nan Gàidheal was seen as performing well in relation to these Public Purposes, although there were some interesting variations, most notably in relation to digitisation. (Figure 6). BBC RNG provides programming and content that caters for the Gaelic community Figure 6: Response to statements on Public Purposes. Ranked by % Agree (N = 172 to 213 respondents) BBC RNG supports and reflects the Gaelic language BBC RNG supports and reflects Gaelic culture BBC RNG provides high quality news I trust BBC RNG to provide me with impartial news BBC RNG helps to promote the Gaelic culture and language to the rest of the UK and the world through bbc.co.uk BBC RNG supports a range of different types of music found in Scotland including traditional, folk, contemporary and classical BBC RNG provides programmes and content which cover a wide range of arts and cultural activities BBC RNG introduces me to new presenters, performers, writers and musical artists from Scotland I have learnt new things whilst enjoying programmes on BBC RNG BBC RNG gives me a better understanding of news and topical issues in Scotland BBC RNG provides coverage of sport in Scotland BBC RNG helps support children and young people with what they learn at school BBC RNG has lots of fresh and new ideas BBC RNG helps me understand politics in Scotland BBC RNG provides me with the opportunity to share the same experiences with other people (like major events, national BBC RNG gives me a better understanding of news and topical issues in my local area BBC RNG helps me understand what is going on in the wider world, such as international news and events BBC RNG reflects a range of religious and other beliefs BBC RNG helps me feel involved and interested in my local community BBC RNG gives me a better understanding of news and topical issues in the UK BBC RNG helps me understand UK wide politics BBC RNG helps me understand politics in Europe BBC RNG has helped me make the most of new technologies such as DAB radio, the internet, iplayer, e mail and interactive TV (red Agreement Importance percentage who agree / rate as important

11 9 There were 24 questions in Section 3 of the questionnaire which covered aspects of the six Public Purposes of the BBC: sustaining citizenship and civil society (questions 25 32); reflecting the UK s nations, regions and communities (questions 33 39); promoting education and learning (questions 40 41); stimulating creativity and cultural excellence (questions 42 45); bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK (questions 46 47); helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services (question 48). The questions were statements to which respondents were asked both to express their level of agreement and to express how important they thought the topics were. This gave not only two answers to each question, but also allowed the difference between these two answers to be calculated, giving a measure of the gap between how respondents thought the station was doing and how important it was they it was carrying out these purposes. (1) Sustaining Citizenship and Civil Society The first eight questions dealt with issues of citizenship and civil society by asking about how Radio nan Gàidheal dealt with news and politics (see Figure 7). Figure 7: response to statements on sustaining citizenship and civil society (N = 192 to 208 respondents) BBC RNG provides high quality news I trust BBC RNG to provide me with impartial news BBC RNG helps me understand politics in Europe BBC RNG helps me understand UK wide politics Agreement Importance BBC RNG helps me understand politics in Scotland BBC RNG gives me a better understanding of news and topical issues in Scotland BBC RNG gives me a better understanding of news and topical issues in the UK BBC RNG gives me a better understanding of news and topical issues in my local area percentage who agree / rate as important On the general question of whether Radio nan Gàidheal provides high quality news, there was overwhelming support for the station, with 90.9% agreeing (whether slightly, strongly or completely) that it did, and 90.1% saying that this was quite important, very important or vital. As far as trusting that the news provided was impartial, again support was very strong % agreed, and 89.3% said that it was some degree of importance. The gaps between the agreement figures and the importance figures in these first two questions is clearly negligible.

12 10 For both the quality and impartiality of Radio nan Gàidheal news, those from socio economic groups ABC1 were more likely to agree, while fluent speakers were more likely to rate the impartial aspect of the news as important. The next statement was concerned with how well the station helped understanding of European politics. Not surprisingly perhaps, support here was more muted, with only 57.5% agreeing, with 30.5% who neither agreed nor disagreed. Against this result was the finding that listeners were not so convinced as in the previous questions that this was important, with 60.6% in the three categories of importance, with 27.8% seeing it as neither important or unimportant. This gives a small negative gap of 3.1. This was followed by a statement on how well Radio nan Gàidheal helped the understanding of UKwide politics. Here there were 61.9% in the agreeing categories, with 28.7% in the middle neither agreeing nor disagreeing category. There were slightly higher percentages for the question of importance, with 64.8% in the top three categories, and 23.1% in the middle uncommitted category. Again this resulted in a small negative gap of 2.9. As far as the understanding of specifically Scottish politics was concerned, the figures were more in the station s favour, with 70.7% agreeing strongly, and 23.0% in the neither agreeing nor disagreeing category. In terms of importance the figures were 70.2% in the top three categories, and 20.7% seeing it as neither important nor unimportant. This is clearly a negligible gap. The next questions moved on to statements concerning the understanding of news and topical issues more generally. Question 30 was concerned with how Radio nan Gàidheal helped the understanding of news and topical issues in Scotland. Here 78.8% expressed agreement, with 13.5% expressing neither agreement nor disagreement. The figures for how important this was were very similar, with 81.7% expressing some level of agreement and 11.4% seeing it as neither important nor unimportant. This gives a small negative performance gap of 2.9. Question 31 concerned the understanding of news and topical issues in the UK as a whole. Here 65.7% expressed agreement with 27.3% in the category expressing neither agreement nor disagreement. Again the figures for the importance of this were similar, with 65.1% supporting the statement s importance and 24.5% saying it was neither important nor unimportant. The overall gap is negligible. The last question relating to citizenship was concerned with how Radio nan Gàidheal gave an understanding of news and topical issues in the listeners local communities. Here the figures of agreement of some kind amounted to 66.9%, with 20.0% expressing neither agreement nor disagreement. Concerning the importance of this kind of news provision, 73.9% were in the three categories which gave it importance, with 14.4% saying it was neither important nor unimportant. The performance gap here is the negative one of 6.8. This is, by a significant amount, the largest such gap in these citizenship questions. It is worth noting, however, that many of Radio nan Gàidheal s listeners live outside the Gaelic communities, and in fact there was a major difference in responses when location was considered.

13 11 Respondents within the Highlands and Islands agreed strongly with this statement (80.6%) and gave much support to its importance (83.6%). This compared with respective figures of 45.3% and 56.9% for those living outside this area. (See table 1.) Table 1: Location breakdown of question 32 Agreement scale disagree Neither agree LOCATION performance Importance scale unimportant Neither important gap N Statements LOCATION percentage of respondents Q32 BBC Radio nan Gàidheal gives me a Highlands & Agreement better understanding of news and Islands Importance topical issues in my local area Rest of Agreement Scotland Importance The station is both a station for the local Gaelic communities and a national station so that although listeners in the Gaelic communities would expect the station to perform some of the functions of a local station, this is unlikely to be the expectation of those living in other parts of Scotland. This issue of localness is reflected in other results below. There was also a significant difference here between fluent and less fluent speakers on both agreement with the statement and the rating of its importance. In both cases the fluent speakers scored more highly 76% against 54.8% on agreement, and 79.1% against 66.7% on importance. Again this is likely to be linked to location. Less fluent speakers are more likely to be living outside the traditional Gaelic communities. As will be clear from the figures given, in none of the above citizenship/civil society questions were negative answers given in significant numbers. In no case did any of the disagree completely or disagree strongly figures reach 5%, and similarly with ratings of the importance of these issues. The figures for slight disagreement reached their highest at 7% on the question of Radio nan Gàidheal s European coverage, and similarly this issue yielded the highest figure for quite unimportant at 7.1%. Overall, it is clear that listeners are generally happy with Radio nan Gàidheal s coverage of news and politics and its contribution to citizenship and civil society. Among the additional comments were: "Very good coverage of world affairs. Always very topical and good discussions" (Female, 45 to 54, Central Belt) "Impartial and very informative. Punches above its weight in breadth and depth of topics it deals with" (Female, 25 to 34, Rest of Scotland) and from the point of view of the less fluent "Absolutely fantastic, as a learner I find the radio invaluable" (Female, 35 to 44, Central Belt) Some, however, criticised the news for being simply a Gaelic version of the English language news:

14 12 "Mar as trice 's e ath chraoladh agus eadar theangachadh de na naidheachdean air BBC sa Bheurla a tha ann" (Most often it's a re broadcast and translation of the BBC news in English) (Female, 65+, Western Isles) "I listen to our Local station for local news. Too much politics on RNG. Too much emphasis on English news translated in to Gaelic. No emphasis whatsoever on Gaelic speaking communities" (Female, 25 to 34, Rest of Scotland) "There is sometimes too great an emphasis on translating English news into Gàidhlig. I can read about the war in Afghanistan in the press, I don't particularly want to have Radio Scotland's headlines available in Gaelic. More regional news welcome" (Female, 16 to 34, Central Belt) Although such views are clearly coming from a minority, they do suggest rather different ideas as to the remit of Radio nan Gàidheal. (2) Reflecting the UK s Nations, Regions and Communities The next seven questions were related to the public purpose of reflecting the UK s nations, regions and communities (see Figure 8). They began with the issue of how well the station catered for the Gaelic community. There was a very high degree of support for this statement, with 93.9% agreeing at some level. The figure for how important this is to the station was virtually the same, with 93.7% saying it had some level of importance. Figure 8: Response to statements on reflecting the UK's nations, regions and communities (N = 192 to 213 respondents) BBC RNG provides programming and content that caters for the Gaelic community BBC RNG helps me feel involved and interested in my local community BBC RNG reflects a range of religious and other beliefs BBC RNG supports and reflects the Gaelic language Agreement Importance BBC RNG supports and reflects Gaelic culture BBC RNG provides coverage of sport in Scotland BBC RNG provides me with the opportunity to share the same experiences with other people (like major events, national percentage who agree / rate as important The second question was concerned with how the station helped its listeners to be involved in their local community. Here the figures were fairly evenly spread out amongst the four categories of complete agreement (23.5%), strong agreement (21.6%), slight agreement (21.1%) and neither agree nor disagree (20.1%). As suggested earlier, these figures are not hard to explain. Many listeners live outside the Gaelic communities of the Western Highlands and Islands and are not living in local

15 13 communities which are Gaelic speaking. The figures for the importance of this aspect of the station s performance were also spread out, although with more of an emphasis in the more important end of the scale 28.7% said it was vital, 26.2% said it was very important, 18.3% said quite important and 14.4% said neither important nor unimportant. With an overall agreement figure of 66.2% and an overall importance figure of 73.2%, this gives a negative performance gap of 7.1, but as already noted there are clear reasons for this. The figures for respondents' location bear this out, with 82.3% within the Highlands and Islands rating this issue as important, compared to 58.4% from other parts of Scotland. There was also a significant difference in the age of respondents to this question, with younger people (16 44) both agreeing more strongly with, and rating as more important, the statement on local communities. In addition, there was a significant difference in relation to the fluency of speakers, with the more fluent agreeing much more strongly with the statement (74.8%) than the less fluent (54.8%). As with the difference noted earlier in relation to local news, this is most probably a reflection of the fact that the less fluent speakers are not, on the whole, likely to be living in Gaelic communities. (See table 2.) Table 2: Location, age and Gaelic fluency breakdown of question 34 Agreement scale disagree Neither agree performance Importance Statements scale unimportant Neither important gap N percentage of respondents Q34 BBC Radio nan Gàidheal helps me Highlands & Agreement feel involved and interested in my Islands Importance local community Rest of Agreement Scotland Importance Q34 BBC Radio nan Gàidheal helps me 16 to 44 Agreement feel involved and interested in my age group Importance local community 45+ Agreement age group Importance Q34 BBC Radio nan Gàidheal helps me Fluent Agreement feel involved and interested in my Gaelic Importance local community Not Agreement Fluent Importance The third question under the communities heading concerned the range of religious and other beliefs which Radio nan Gàidheal reflects. Here the responses were a bit more muted than in some of the questions. The overall figure for agreement was 66.3%. There was a very similar overall figure for the importance of this issue at 65.1%. This question also had one of the highest figures for any of the public purposes of those who regarded the whole issue as unimportant (at 16.7% it was second only to the same category in responses to the statement about digital communications; see the final Public Purpose below). The performance gap is 1.2. Once again there was a significant difference in age groups with younger respondents agreeing less strongly than older ones (55.4% of agreement as against 70.5%). A similar explanation may be seen for the fact that fluent speakers agreed more strongly with this statement (73.5%) than the less fluent (56.1%) fluent speakers are more likely to

16 14 be living in the traditional Gaelic communities and perhaps to interpret this question as being largely about Christianity. The fourth and fifth questions concerned how the station supports and reflects Gaelic language and Gaelic culture respectively. Not surprisingly there was strong support here on both accounts. Concerning the language, 92.0% were in the three categories of agreement (including a very large 66.2% for completely agree ). The figures were even higher on the question of the importance of this, with 92.3% saying it was important. This included 73.9% saying it was vital. There was a difference in responses between younger and older listeners, with 98.3% of younger ones (under 45) agreeing with the statement contrasted with 89.7% of the older group. Concerning Gaelic culture, there was again very strong support, with 91.5% agreeing that the station supports and reflects Gaelic culture, and 72.6% saying that this was vitally important for the station. There were small negative performance gaps on both of these topics (respectively 0.3 and 1.7). The sixth question concerned the coverage of sport in Scotland. Here there was general support for the station s coverage, with 77.7% agreeing. The overall figure for the importance of sports coverage was 63.5%, but the individual figures were a bit more spread out 25.5% said it was vital, but also 22.9% said it was neither important nor unimportant, and 13.5% said it was unimportant. The gap here was a positive one of The results no doubt reflect listeners varying attitudes to sport in itself but it is clear that in general the station s coverage of sports is seen as appropriate. Again there was a significant difference in responses from older and younger listeners, with younger ones agreeing more strongly with the statement (87.3%) than older ones (73.8%). The final question under this heading concerned how well the station allowed its listeners to share the same experience as other people (like major events, national anniversaries and live events). Once again the responses were mixed, although generally positive, with the figures for agreement spread fairly evenly from the neither agree nor disagree category at 21.8%, through 19.3%, 27.7% and 23.3% in the three categories of increasing agreement, giving 70.3% agreement overall. There was a similar pattern concerning the importance of this, with 66.5% overall supporting its importance, and with 24.0% in the neither important nor unimportant category. The performance gap here is a positive one of 3.8. Curiously there was a significant difference between male and female responses to this issue, with 59.8% of male respondents agreeing with the statements, as against 79.3% of female respondents. (See Table 3.) Table 3: Gender breakdown of question 39 Agreement LOCATION scale disagree Neither agree performance Importance Statements scale unimportant Neither important gap N percentage of respondents Q39 BBC Radio nan Gàidheal provides Males Agreement me with the opportunity to share Importance the same experiences with other Females Agreement people (like major events, national anniversaries and live events) Importance

17 15 Overall, the station is seen as performing well in the issue of reflecting communities, and the results gave some very high positive results. The additional comments bear this out: "Excellent promotes access to events and is the perfect place to explore Gaelic language and culture" (Female, 35 to 44, Central Belt) "Excellent all inclusive [ ] an experience not to be missed for learners and speakers alike" (Male, 25 to 34, Central Belt) "Tremendous [ ] would be lost without BBC Radio nan Gàidheal!" (Female, 65+, Highland & Argyll) However, there were some negative statements, "It's the same people you hear on the radio all the time. Therefore you're hearing the same voices and opinions over and over again" (Female, 25 to 34, Central Belt) "Too much emphasis on tradition" (Male, 35 to 44, Highland & Argyll) "Some of the presenters cannot speak good Gaelic" (Female, 65+, Western Isles) (3) Promoting Education and Learning There were two questions under this heading (see Figure 9). The first was concerned with whether listeners had learnt new things from Radio nan Gàidheal. There was strong support for this, with 81.4% agreeing. This was seen as important by 81.6%, giving a negligible performance gap. The second question concerned whether the station helped support children and young people with what they are learning at school. Here 76.0% were in agreement, contrasting with 82.1% saying that this was important to some degree. With a negative performance gap of 6.1, clearly a few listeners felt that more could be done in this line. There was a difference on this issue between the responses of fluent and non fluent speakers, with the latter rating this as more important (88.9% compared with 76.9%). This may reflect a stronger concern for education in Gaelic amongst learners and those living outside the Gaelic communities. Figure 9: response to statements on promoting education and learning (N = 190 to 204 respondents) I have learnt new things whilst enjoying programmes on BBC RNG BBC RNG helps support children and young people with what they learn at school Agreement Importance percentage who agree / rate as important Once again, the station is seen to be performing well against this public purpose, although with some slight feeling that more could be done. The additional comments bore this out:

18 16 "I learn something new every time I listen" (Female, 35 to 44, Central Belt) "Daily there is a new and valuable experience brought alive by the station" (Male, 25 to 34, Central Belt) Less positive comments tended to be on the types of programmes broadcast: "There's not enough historical programmes on the radio Lots of emphasis on trying to make Radio nan Gàidheal modern" (Female, 25 to 34, Rest of Scotland) "I would like programmes using language accessible to learners but not specifically for learning the language" (Female, 55 to 64, Central Belt) "Bhithinn airson barrachd phrograman a bhith ann airson oileanaich bho aois 17 25" (I would want more programmes for students aged 17 25) (Female, 16 to 24, Central Belt) (4) Stimulating Creativity and Cultural Excellence There were four questions under this heading (see Figure 10). The first was concerned with whether the station had introduced listeners to new presenters, performers, writers and musicians. An overall agreement figure of 82.7%, with a similar percentage for importance of 82.4%, were both very positive. The performance gap is negligible. Figure 10: response to statements on stimulating creativity and cultural excellence (N = 202 to 210 respondents) BBC RNG introduces me to new presenters, performers, writers and musical artists from Scotland BBC RNG supports a range of different types of music found in Scotland including traditional, folk, contemporary and classical BBC RNG provides programmes and content which cover a wide range of arts and cultural activities BBC RNG has lots of fresh and new ideas Agreement Importance percentage who agree / rate as important The second question was concerned with the range of music found on the station and referred to traditional, folk, contemporary and classical. Again there was strong support with 89.0% in the three categories of support, with a very similar figure for those saying that this was very important or vital 89.8%, again resulting in a negligible performance gap. There was a significant difference in the responses of the different age groups, however, with the under 45s giving more importance to this issue (96.7%), compared with older listeners (86.8%). There was also a significant difference in gender responses on the question of the importance of this issue, with females (at 94.0%) more likely to consider it important than males (83.7%). As regards fluency, there was also a distinction here, with the less fluent seeing it as more important (94.5%) than the fluent (at 86.0%).

19 17 The third question was concerned with the range of arts and cultural activities which Radio nan Gàidheal covers. The overall figure of agreement was 83.7%. The overall figure for importance was 84.8%, resulting in a small negative performance gap of 1.2. Once again the less fluent saw this issue as more important (at 92.2%) than the more fluent (at 78.8%). This result, along with the previous one, may reflect the different reasons that fluent and less fluent speakers have in coming to the station. The fourth question was on the issue of whether the station has lots of fresh and new ideas. Here again, although overall agreement was high at 75.7%, support for the statement was slightly muted, with only 12.6% in the completely agree category, and more in both the strongly agree (33.0%) and slightly agree (30.1%) categories. Once again more people 83.2% saw this as being important, giving a negative performance gap of 7.4 (the largest apart from the final question on digital developments). To put this into context, it is worth noting that two of the most popular programmes on Radio nan Gàidheal (Coinneach MacIomhair and Mire ri Mòir) are both long lasting and dependent on very well known and familiar presenters. Less fluent speakers rated this issue as more important (at 89.7%) than fluent speakers (78.3%). Overall, the station is seen as performing well in relation to creativity and cultural excellence. The additional comments back this up: "Simply something for everyone and well done" (Female, 65+, Highland & Argyll) "Wide range of interests represented and all age groups catered for" (Female, 35 to 44, Central Belt) "Range of programmes has improved very much over the past 2 years" (Female, 65+, Rest of Scotland) There were, of course, some negative comments. "More programmes for teenagers and youth" (Female, 55 to 64, Central Belt) "The programme [Feasgar, ] should play music relating to Gaelic not contemporary and classical music" "Poor range of programmes certain programmes have passed their sell by date" (Female, 25 to 34, Rest of Scotland). (5) Bringing the UK to the World and the World to the UK Two questions fell under this public purpose (see Figure 11). The first was concerned with whether Radio nan Gàidheal helped its listeners to understand what was going on in the wider world beyond the UK. The overall amount of agreement came to 67.0%, although with the neither agree nor disagree at 23%, this suggests slightly less conviction that Radio nan Gàidheal was performing as well as it might in this respect. Having said that, the overall figure of the respondents who said that this was important came to exactly the same 67%, resulting in no performance gap. There was a

20 18 difference here between the fluent and the less fluent, with the more fluent agreeing more strongly with the statement (73.5%) than the less fluent (58.3%). This may reflect on how central the station is to listeners' understanding of news, with less fluent speakers more likely to use English language media as their primary news sources. There was also a difference in the responses from the different occupational groupings, with C2DE respondents more likely to agree with the statement (79.3%) than ABC1 respondents (61.4%). Figure 11: response to statements on bringing the UK to the world and the world to the (N = 197 to 211 respondents) BBC RNG helps to promote the Gaelic culture and language to the rest of the UK and the world through bbc.co.uk BBC RNG helps me understand what is going on in the wider world, such as international news and events percentage who agree / rate as important UK Agreement Importance The second question looked in the other direction and was concerned with how Radio nan Gàidheal promoted Gaelic to the rest of the UK and the world. Here there was much more agreement that the station was performing well, with 89.6% in the three categories of agreement. This was also seen as important, with 90.4% giving it some level of importance. The performance gap was negligible. There was a small difference between the responses of those within the Highlands and Islands and those from elsewhere, with 92.9% of the former agreeing with the statement, as opposed to 84.5% of the latter. Overall the station is seen as performing well in promoting Gaelic culture, but slightly less well in bringing international understanding to its listeners. (6) Helping to Deliver to the Public the Benefit of Emerging Communications Technologies and Services The last question dealt with new technologies (see Figure 12). It asked if Radio nan Gàidheal had helped listeners to the make the most of new technologies such as DAB radio, the Internet, i Player, e mail and interactive TV. The responses to this were the weakest in the survey. The categories of agreement came to just 53.1%, with the largest single category at 24% being the middle one of neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the statement, suggesting a certain amount of uncertainty over the significance of this. Figure 12: response to statements on emerging digital communications (N = 172 to 175 respondents) BBC RNG has helped me make the most of new technologies such as DAB radio, the internet, iplayer, e mail and interactive TV (red button) Agreement percentage who agree / rate as important In terms of importance 61.0% gave the statement some degree of support (only the issue of the coverage of European politics received a lower score for importance). The negative performance gap

21 19 here was 7.9. Although this was the largest negative performance gap, the fact that it was also the lowest score for importance suggests that Radio nan Gàidheal s listeners do not see this as being as crucial to the station s performance as issues to do with Gaelic, news and education, for example. Not surprisingly, perhaps, on both agreement and importance, the under 45s scored more highly than the over 44s (64.2% against 47.9% on agreement, and 72.2% against 55.9% on importance). There is therefore a negative performance gap concerning the station s support of new technological developments in broadcasting but this issue is given a lower importance than the other Public Purposes by the station s listeners. Summary of the key findings in relation to the Public Purposes: Listeners are happy with Radio nan Gàidheal s performance under the citizenship and civil society heading They see it as performing well in reflecting different communities, but particularly well in reflecting Gaelic language and culture It is seen as helping education, although with a slight feeling that more could be done It performs well in terms of creativity and cultural excellence It is seen as performing well in promoting Gaelic culture to the world, but slightly less well in bringing international understanding to its listeners There is a notable negative performance gap in relation to the station s support of new technologies but this is matched by it being a lower priority amongst the listeners CONCLUSION It is clear that in general terms Radio nan Gàidheal is perceived as being a good station which is serving its community well. It is particularly popular and valued by the older and more fluent part of the Gaelic speaking audience. It is generally seen as delivering the BBC s Public Purposes well.

22 20 Appendix BBC Trust s Review of the Nation s Radio Stations October 2010 BBC RADIO NAN GÀIDHEAL QUESTIONNAIRE As an important part of the BBC Trust s review of the Nation s Radio stations Lèirsinn Research Centre has been commissioned to undertake an evaluation of BBC Radio nan Gàidheal. You have the opportunity to have your say on BBC Radio and a chance to influence what the BBC does in the future by taking part in the research. Please take the time to complete the questionnaire and return it to us, folded in half, in the reply paid envelope provided by the end of October. You, or another member of your household, can fill in the questionnaire in English or Gaelic. ALL who complete and return a valid questionnaire to us by November will receive a 10 retail voucher [one questionnaire per household] All your responses will be held in strict confidence and if you have any queries about this research please call us at Lèirsinn on or e mail leirsinn@smo.uhi.ac.uk Please answer the following questions by circling the appropriate option that best applies to you. SECTION 1: LISTENING TO RADIO and BBC RADIO NAN GÀIDHEAL 1. Can you receive BBC Radio nan Gàidheal? (please circle one option only) 1 Yes 2 No 3 Don t know 2. Have you personally listened to BBC Radio nan Gaidheal in the last four weeks? This could be through any device e.g. radio, television, internet etc. (please circle one option only) 1 Yes 2 No 3 Don t know 3. Which other types of radio station have you personally listened to in the last four weeks? This could be through any device e.g. radio, television, internet etc. (please circle the appropriate options) 1 BBC Radio Scotland 1 Any other BBC radio station (e.g. BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 etc) 1 A Local Commercial Station (e.g. Clyde 1, Forth One, Northsound One, Kingdom FM) 1 A National Commercial Station (e.g. Classic FM, Real Radio, Virgin Radio) 4. Please indicate how regularly, if at all, you listen to BBC Radio nan Gaidheal? (please circle one option only) 1 Most days 5 About once a month 2 Two to three times a week 6 About once every two to three months 3 About once a week 7 About once every six months 4 About once a fortnight 8 Less often 0 Never 9 Don t know