Ron Jones on S4C’s future

There is plenty of ongoing debate about the future of English language broadcasting in Wales, but since Wales became fully digital just over a month ago S4C also faces new challenges as Tinopolis Chairman Ron Jones sets out in the article below

'S4C needs to change, not to placate enemies, but because it always has to change. It's there to provide Welsh-speakers with the services they want and need in a media market where commercial revenues are insufficient to do the job.

We have never lived up to our responsibility to help S4C define what it is for in this new media age.

S4C removed the conflict between Welsh speakers who wanted television in Welsh and non-Welsh speakers who equally validly wanted network programmes.

By combining Welsh and Channel 4 programmes a compromise was reached that, ignoring a few scraps over racing, worked for all. This issue has disappeared with the technology constraints that caused it.

S4C's problem today is finding the money and talent to fill what could technically be a 24-hour channel. They have had to settle for a high proportion of repeats. Viewers don't like it but we have to accept that this approach is the only way to provide any Welsh-only channel. Funding to expand the number of hours of Welsh-language programming is not there.

Anyway, there is a finite pool of creative talent and we would struggle to supply significantly greater hours of value or quality.

A long-term problem is the imbalance in public funding for English and Welsh television in Wales. Since devolution we have seen a new consensus on a bilingual Wales. Welsh is, for all practical purposes, an official language and the equal treatment of Welsh and English is widely accepted. Equality has a price that one day we will be asked to pay.

The breadth and depth of English language television for Wales compares very badly with that in Welsh. English language television is a key component of creating the new Wales and reinforcing the feeling of what it is to be Welsh. The Welsh language will not survive a Wales that no longer know or understands what it is to be Welsh. ITV are reluctant to retain their licence obligation to Wales. The BBC may see its commitment to Wales as being more easily served by shipping in network productions than by making programmes for Wales.

There is little chance of any future government making additional funds available for public service broadcasting. Improving the English service in Wales can come from one of two sources: S4C's existing funding or the BBC.

The Welsh language cannot afford to share S4C's revenues but in order to protect them we need to campaign for a fundamental realignment of the BBC's spending. The BBC has the money and the three nations need it.

Recent controversy about viewer numbers should not be dismissed just as the effect of digital scheduling. Over the years, S4C audiences have fallen and the average age of viewers remains disproportionately high. As viewers we have a role here. Do we really want the channel? At the moment we are voting no on our remote controls. S4C has indicated it wants to consult about what Welsh-speakers want. We must help them identify what today's S4C should be.'

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