The BBC Trust has approved the corporation's plan to launch a £21m-a-year digital Gaelic-language service.
Co-funded by the Gaelic Media Service, the new offering for Scotland will be available via cable and satellite TV, broadband and radio.
However, the BBC Trust has at this stage rejected plans to launch the service on digital terrestrial TV service Freeview after being unconvinced that the hefty cost - some £4m per year - would deliver substantial public value.
The trust found that the cost per user of the full Gaelic digital service proposal would be £191 per year, based on the current reach of Gaelic-language programming on TV and radio.
When Freeview was removed from the equation, the cost per user fell to £139.
"The trust acknowledges the importance for many stakeholders the issue of carriage of the service on Freeview," said Jeremy Peat, the BBC national trustee for Scotland.
"However, the trust feels it is too early to judge, in view of the extra cost involved and the needs of the audience, whether carriage on Freeview would be fully justified by the delivery of sufficient additional public value."
The BBC Trust intends to review the Gaelic-language digital service in 2010, before digital terrestrial TV switchover commences in central and northern Scotland, to see if it is achieving its public value aims and to consider expanding it to Freeview.
"The channel ... must now seek to improve markedly the quality and quantity of broadcast support for the language, to extend the current audience for Gaelic programming and provide an exciting new service for licence fee payers across Scotland," said Peat.
BBC plans for the Gaelic-language service include a digital TV channel broadcasting for up to seven hours a day, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal and "significantly enhanced" Gaelic-language content for BBC.co.uk users.
The trust added that the Gaelic Zone on BBC2 will "continue for the foreseeable future" to "protect access for current users".
Today's green light from the BBC Trust comes after the corporation's governance and regulatory body originally balked at management's proposals.
The trust asked the corporation's executive to provide additional information to prove that it will appeal to a wider audience, attract new speakers and how it might be of educational benefit.
Peat said today that after receiving additional information from the BBC executive, the trust "believes this service will offer public value and be culturally significant for both Gaelic speakers and Scotland as a whole".
The trust added that the educational benefits "would in fact be greater" than it had originally anticipated.
However, the BBC Trust said that it "remains doubtful" that the corporation will achieve its target audience of 250,000 people "in the short term" for the Gaelic-language service. Should the service achieve its target the cost per user would fall to £43.
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