44 years later and still only one channel: Broadcasting must be devolved to Wales

S4C’s headquarters in Carmarthen. Photo via Google

Ben Isaac-Evans 

It’s 8 am. This time tomorrow I’ll be getting the little lady, or as we say in Welsh, y groten, ready to go to Ysgol. She’s already been watching S4C cartoons this morning while eating her breakfast, but now we have a programme she loses interest in because it’s aimed at a slightly older age group.

So, then we switch to CBeebies or YouTube (naughty Daddy). In the process, she loses the opportunity to hear them in her native tongue. This, for her and me, is a huge problem and one we desperately need to change if we, as a nation, are to get anywhere near the Welsh Government’s target of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050. 

S4C’s children’s service, with its programmes featuring Cyw, have won several awards over the years.

I was a part of Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s (The Welsh Language Society) campaign to keep Cyw alive when the channel faced significant financial cuts under the Conservative and Liberal Democrats coalition. Rhaid i Cyw Fyw (Cyw must live) was the motto. Well, Cyw is alive, but I’m not sure it’s growing alongside the children that are watching it. If it were a school, I’d probably suggest it needs to be put in special measures. 

As I navigate the frustration of this chance missed for my young daughter, I can’t help but feel that the only solution is to have another channel.

English-speaking children have two dedicated channels just for them with the BBC, in CBBC and CBeebies, so why can’t we have the same in Welsh… or at least one?!

Those two channels alone have around a third of S4C’s budget, with the BBC having an income of £5.4 billion in 2023/2024. As of 2023, the S4C budget was around £82-84 million.

I can already hear the comments section buzzing with “But how will we pay for this?” The answer is we already are, with the license fee.

After a sunny week of fantastic competitions and engagement by Cymru’s youth and future at the Urdd Eisteddfod on Ynys Môn, surely they deserve a bit more breadth of programming?

In a recent article by my colleague at Nation Cymru, it was shown that ITV only spent 0.8% of their UK budget in Wales in 2024.

Hardly fair, is it?  

Case study 

If we look at a smaller nation than Wales, with a population of around 570,000 compared to our 3+ million, it’s interesting to see that in Malta, three public channels are broadcasting in Maltese. They also have private channels broadcasting, too. 

I was intrigued to hear about what type of things they broadcast after reading an interesting article by Jacqueline Zammit on the survival of the Maltese language.

Like ours, it is in a battle against the 999+ English channels being pumped to us, along with the ever-changing digital landscape online via YouTube and others. 

Jaquelin insists that her language needs to adapt, and in her article states: “The future of a language is not decided by those who already speak it. It is decided by those who are still growing into it. And today’s children are growing up in a world where Maltese is barely present at all. We already know this.

“Maltese is largely absent from the digital environments that shape everyday experience. It is missing from the tools, platforms and systems where younger generations spend their time, from games to smart technologies. What we have not yet accepted is what that absence will cost us. 

“For children, life unfolds through screens, games, streaming platforms, social media such as TikTok and immersive digital worlds. These are not distractions. They are where identity is formed, where humour lives, where creativity happens and where belonging is negotiated. In those spaces, Maltese is almost invisible. That is not a minor problem. It affects the very existence of Maltese in the future, not just its quality, status or prestige. Languages do not disappear because people reject them. They disappear when they are no longer needed. This is how loss begins, not with resistance, but with absence.” 

This is the same battle that Cymraeg is facing. As Jaqueline points out, we must adapt and we must do it now. 

Devolve broadcasting  

With the BBC facing another scandal in the last few months, with Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills (who was reportedly being paid £350,000+ a year) losing his job and numerous other scandals such as those involving Huw Edwards and Jimmy Saville, it does pose questions around whether Cymru should take control of its own affairs when it comes to broadcasting. 

The Senedd’s Culture, Welsh Language, Sport and International Relations committee have recently been scrutinising S4C, and the decisions made about it. The only problem is that those decisions are not being made in Wales, for the most part.

The UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport has the say on what happens to S4C, with decisions on its future voted on by MPs in England.

As Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s Bethan Williams put it: “It’s ridiculous that decisions about our only TV channel are made by people in Westminster who know nothing about it.”

Plaid Cymru have long called for broadcasting to be devolved, but is this finally the time for Plaid, now in government, to achieve this aim? 

In their first 100 days document Plaid stated they wanted to “Publish plans and a timeline to establish a Shadow Broadcasting and Communications Authority for Wales, to protect and strengthen local and national public service media platforms in Wales”.

It would be a huge achievement for Plaid to establish this, but it would also be a huge step in the right direction.

S4C impartiality? 

There are currently big questions about S4C’s catch-up platform Clic and whether it is becoming obsolete, as S4C has now been usurped by the BBC and its iPlayer service. 

S4C is likely to be facing more cuts in future in relation to the recent news that the BBC is to cut its workforce to make a £600 million saving.

Cymdeithas yr Iaith has criticised the risk of these jobs being lost, citing it as a major hit for the Welsh language channel in view of the Welsh Government’s target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050. 

There are also questions that I have in relation to S4C’s impartiality when it comes to reporting items, even on their flagship magazine show, Heno.

In a recent report by them from Eurovision, they conveniently missed the huge story about countries such as Ireland and Spain boycotting the event due to the ongoing genocide in Palestine; that Israel was allowed to take part when Russia wasn’t and had their presenter dancing in a crowd during the event in celebration. 

Do we want S4C to be a part of the British establishment and in the process become more English (Cymru after all aren’t allowed to compete in Eurovision in our native language and England came last, again, while Malta have competed since 1971). Or do we want S4C to be impartial and independent of that establishment, to be able to show our distinctive differences, language and culture? 

As I’m currently reading Will Hayward’s book, Who Cares About Wales, it’s obvious that we should be asking some serious questions about these issues as we have been for many years. The question now is what will we do about it?

Will the Welsh Government finally push to take the reins so that the Senedd ultimately has the biggest say over its own country’s TV channel and broadcasting, or are we happy to be continuously dictated to by politicians and BBC employees in England? 

To steal some lines from our international friend in Malta, who I give 12 points for her article: 

What Cymru needs now is not reassurance but a decision, a commitment to investment, imagination and the courage to place Cymraeg at the centre of future making, not past keeping.

If Cymraeg does not enter the digital, creative and imaginative lives of children, it will not be chosen, and if it is not chosen, it will not survive.