Digital TV -- missing the point...?

[Níall Beag]

I bought a Chinese carry-out on the way home tonight, and Wild China was on the telly, so I switched it on when I got back to the flat and ate my tea in front of pictures of China.

Anyway, so this set me back to thinking something that I was thinking about a while ago: some of the BBC's best TV has no on-screen presenter -- think of the Blue Planet, for instance.

Digital TV always promised us interactivity and choice: choose your camera angle for the football; more data on the screen; all that sort of stuff.

Look at Binnein nam Beann and Iomall nan Tonn -- originally voiced over in Gaelic, but when the DVDs were released they were labelled Mountains of Scotland and Islands of Scotland, with a choice of English or Gaelic voiceovers mentioned on the back.

Why aren't things translated the other way? Why don't we have a choice of Gaelic, Welsh and Irish -- and heck, what about Scots and Ulster Scots? -- under our red buttons for this sort of program?

Voiceovers must be the cheapest thing in TV anyway....

[neoni]

it probably is the cheapest thing in television, but having gaelic subtitles on a film isn't going to add any noticeable value, whereas having english subtitles on a gaelic one probably will.

everybody can speak english but not everybody can speak gaelic/irish/scots/etc and the bbc (or any equally money-driven company) doesn't care about culture or language preservation at all

[Seonaidh]

everybody can speak english but not everybody can speak gaelic/irish/scots/etc and the bbc (or any equally money-driven company) doesn't care about culture or language preservation at all

Lurv the sentiment, Zero, but it's not quite the case. God it's hard to explain this properly in English. Bu toigh leamsa is-tìotalan air a h-uile rud anns a' Chuimris. But there you go. If I have to sturggle with a language, better one I'm learning and interested in it than one I learnt and am not very. And voiceovers would be better than subtitles. Maybe Small Neil's onto something.

[Níall Beag]

I'm not talking about subtitles -- I'm talking about soundtracks. A Gaelic soundtrack as a red button option on the Blue Planet would have been cheaper and arguably better than most of the dedicated Gaelic language programmes on telly.

[An Gobaire]

Gheibh thu sin air Youtube agus prògram aca air gioban a tha toirt an car às dà thìgeir òga. Tha Gàidhlig ga bruidhinn an seo mar ghuth-aithris. 'S cuimhne leam am prògram sin fhèin a bh' air Grampian ann am marbh a' mheadhan-oidhche! A h-uile Dimàirt, air no Diardaoin a bh' ann...

You can find that on a program about a gibbon that takes the piss out of two young tigers on Youtube. Gaelic is spoken here as a voice-over. I remember that very program on Grampian (TV) in the dead of the night. Either every Tuesday, or Thursday....