It is a damning, but hardly surprising, statistic that more people in Scotland now speak Polish than Gaelic, but a new television channel, due to be launched next month, hopes to reawaken interest in the ancient Celtic tongue.

Key to its strategy is football. An agreement has already been reached with the SPL for the new channel, still to be officially named, to broadcast delayed full coverage of a top-flight match on a Saturday evening.

MG Alba - who, together with the BBC, will launch the new station - recently became the new sponsors of the Challenge Cup in a move that increases the competition's prize fund and means the live broadcast of one semi-final and the final.

Leaning heavily on sport, and on football in particular, to capture the attention of the general public without alienating the core audience, is an approach that has worked well for TG4 in the Republic of Ireland, and S4C, the Welsh language station. Now Alan Esslemont, head of content at MG Alba, hopes to achieve similar results in Scotland.

"Part of the content will be traditional stuff that will be trying to serve the core Gaelic-speaking communities, but with some of our programming we're looking to seek out a national audience," Esslemont said.

"There are a variety of ways we can do that, including strong documentaries or music, but one way to reach a male demographic would be to look at sport. We're looking at the three main sports - shinty, rugby and football - and within football we've been talking to the SPL and the SFL.

"We think that sport is something that crosses linguistic barriers. It's something that our core audience will be interested in, and something that we would like to reach out to a wider audience with and get normal Scottish people to view the channel as something useful for them as well. For any minority language you need the support of the majority language within the country.

"If Gaelic is viewed more within the mainstream of Scottish life then it will be easier to promote, will attract new speakers and, for those who speak it as their native tongue, they will feel that it's more of a mainstream part of life in Scotland."

The new channel, which will initially be available only via satellite and cable but not Freeview, plans to broadcast live football matches solely in Gaelic, while interviews and features will either carry subtitles or will be conducted in English.

"Commentary will just be in Gaelic," Esslemont confirmed. "Everyone understands what's happening in a football match so that will be easy.

"If we do interviews or magazine bits we'll make sure there's enough support on screen so people who don't have Gaelic can easily follow what's being covered. If we have to talk to people who don't speak Gaelic the interviews will be in English."

The areas where Gaelic is most widely spoken, the Western Isles and the Isle of Skye, do not have a Scottish league team within 80 miles but Esslemont is confident the channel's core audience will not be alienated by the broadcast of matches solely involving mainland teams.

"If you're living in the outer isles you will still have an interest in football, not necessarily the local teams but the teams on mainland Scotland," he said.

It is of little surprise, given Setanta's stranglehold on Scottish football, that the new Gaelic channel has chosen to steer away from the mainstream. As well as their existing deals with the lower reaches of the SPL and the Challenge Cup, discussions are ongoing to broadcast live coverage of matches from the First Division, possibly on a Friday night.

"The SPL is more than just Rangers and Celtic," Esslemont added. "As a channel we are about grassroots Scotland and about giving coverage to areas that don't regularly get television coverage.

"I'd be very interested in showing the other teams in the division and giving them the showcase they deserve.

"I also believe the SFL is where local talent can thrive. As a television channel what we want to do is to create a showcase for local talent and hope that talent can reach a level of national and international significance."

"We've been looking at various broadcast slots but we've not been able to reach agreement yet with the SFL.

"I don't think we will get something done this calendar year but we hope something could be done for the second half of this season."