Explanatory note

Part I of the Broadcasting Act 1996 (“the Act”) provides for licensing digital television programme services and, in particular, for licensing the provision of “multiplex services”, as defined in section 1 of the Act, by means of which such programme services are broadcast. This Order requires the Independent Television Commission to include in the multiplex licence under which Channel 5 and S4C Digital are to be broadcast a condition requiring the holder to broadcast at least 30 minutes of Gaelic programming every day in Scotland during peak evening viewing time.

The Order also requires the licence holder, in complying with this condition, to broadcast at least 30 hours of Gaelic programmes per year supplied by each of the persons mentioned in section 32(4)(a) and (c) of the Act, that is the BBC and, currently, Scottish Television and Grampian Television.