February 24 – BBC Alba in Scotland delayed its Saturday night broadcast of the Ross County vs St Mirren Scottish Premier League match because of the amount of swearing that could be heard on the broadcast by fans.
The match, originally scheduled to be broadcast ‘as live’ at 17.30 was switched to 22.55 enabling the producers to edit out the bad language.
Producers feared that airing the match before the 9pm ‘watershed’ – the time after which programmes with adult content may be broadcast – would break the regulator Ofcom’s guidelines.
The SPL has made no comment on the event and it does not have an impact on the current the broadcast deal.
BBC Alba is the BBC’s Scottish Gaelic language channel. The match was scheduled to be broadcast in full soon after the final whistle.
A BBC Alba spokeswoman said: “In compliance with the rules set by Ofcom, where no programme that carries offensive language can be broadcast pre-watershed, BBC Alba had no choice but to defer broadcast of today’s Ross County v St Mirren match until post-watershed due to bad language picked up from the crowds.”
The match itself, played in front of 3,394 fans, was a bad tempered affair with both managers being sent to the stands. Ross County ended up 2-1 winners. The win for Ross County pushes them one point above St Mirren in the relegation battle.
BBC Scotland sports reporter Jim Spence later tweeted: “Bad language delays transmission of BBC Alba Ross Co v St Mirren game tonight. that’s ###@@@€€€€#### ridiculous”.
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