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The summer of 2026 is set to be a sporting spectacle with Scotland’s return to the biggest stage of world football at the heart of it. The men’s national team will compete at the World Cup for the first time since 1998, driving a national conversation around the team’s participation as well as the wider tournament across the USA, Canada and Mexico.
BBC ALBA are looking to commission a new visualised podcast format ensuring that Gaelic language content will be part of this historic Scottish moment.
Over the past few years, football has seen a shift away from traditional broadcast punditry to long-form conversations with more reflective discussions which prioritise honest, personality-driven content. Programmes including The Rest is Football and Open Goal engage their audiences with distinct insights and hilarious stories, whereas The Overlap has become one of the leading sport creators on YouTube in the UK with a strong youth following.
Our priority is to ensure Gaelic representation in a fresh, engaging manner on a subject that is sure to be at the forefront of most minds through June and July. Our primary target audience is Gaelic speakers under the age of 45. However, we would hope to reach anyone who has an interest in football or whose imaginations are captured by the World Cup.
Although episodes should be informative, this is not a news podcast. The podcast should include insightful and entertaining opinion, comedic anecdotes and a warm on-air relationship between contributors and guests which audiences find relatable. Potential contributors should be well-known figures within the Gaelic world who are able to react quickly and wittily with each other, whilst creating space and encouraging participation from everyone on-air. The podcast should mainly focus on Scotland’s participation in the wider spectacle.
We are looking to commission a minimum of six episodes at this stage, although a flexible approach will allow us to commission more episodes, if necessary, as the competition unfolds. Episodes should revolve around key moments, whether that be squad announcements or group stage fixtures. These will require a quick turnaround for publication to maintain a sense of topicality. We intend to upload the visualised podcast to BBC Sounds, BBC iPlayer and BBC ALBA’s YouTube channel, allowing audiences to consume the content in their preferred format.
Visualisation should be authentic to the podcast, allowing for audiences to fully immerse themselves in the content. It should be high quality allowing for distribution of clips on BBC ALBA’s social media platforms.
We welcome ideas from Scottish production companies or content creators with an interest in the above. Please note proposals should include the following:
Pitches should be submitted to bbcalbacommissioning@bbc.co.uk. The deadline for proposals is 5pm on 28 April 2026.
