BBC News: BBC must spend more on TV in Wales, says Senedd report

Story from BBC News:

The BBC needs to spend as much on television content in Wales as it does in Scotland, a new Senedd report says.

The culture committee said the BBC spends twice as much on Scotland English-language content as in Wales.

Welsh licence fee payers "deserve better," it said.

The BBC said Wales benefitted from moving more production out of London, it is Wales' biggest year of drama, and audiences are up for Welsh content on iPlayer, Sounds and news online.

"We're calling for a year-on-year increase in spending until we have parity with Scotland," said culture committee chair Delyth Jewell.

"Broadcasting plays an important role in Wales - portraying and shaping Welsh identity," she added.

"It also plays a key role in our democracy, ensuring that governments and decision-makers are held to account," she said.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The report highlights the BBC's continued commitment to audiences in Wales and to the Welsh creative economy.

"It demonstrates the corporation's increased investment in content which is made in Wales and how the nation is benefiting from the decision to move more production out of London.

"This year, investment in network radio produced in Wales has doubled. It's also been the biggest year of drama from Wales on the BBC.

"The BBC is also proud to have seen a significant year on year increase of audiences to BBC Wales's content on BBC iPlayer, Sounds and news online, and to have supported extended hours of broadcasting in recent months on Radio Cymru 2."

The BBC, ITV and S4C all said they would respond to the report later.

The committee also called on regulator Ofcom to require ITV to produce a greater proportion of its content in Wales.

ITV has a requirement to make 35% of its programmes outside the south-east of England, but Ofcom data shows ITV's UK network spend in Wales was close to 0%, the committee said.

In recent years, the figure was around 5%, the report said.

Phil Henfrey, of ITV Cymru Wales, said it made "an important contribution to broadcasting and public life in Wales, including providing plurality to the BBC in news and current affairs in both English and in Welsh, and bringing a mass audience to it".The committee also said Welsh-language S4C needed more money and a funding formula "that provides assurance to help it better plan ahead".

It pointed out that the funding arrangement for the broadcaster has changed three times in the past 15 years.

"Since 2010, the UK government has reduced S4C's funding in real terms by over 30%," the committee report said.

S4C said that since it began it "has played a key role in supporting the independent production companies that have been established across Wales."We are proud to be headquartered in Carmarthen, to be involved in setting up Aria Film Studios in Llangefni, and also proud of the productions and filming that takes place all over the country."

Dyfrig Davies, chairman of TAC (Teledwyr Annibynnol Cymru), which represents the independent Welsh TV production sector, said the data and evidence "proves what we already know".

"We must remember that the broadcasting and content creation and production sector in Wales is a growing sector and it is interesting and good to know that the Welsh government sees this as a sector that could receive more investment to grow even further," he told BBC Radio Cymru's Dros Frecwast.