| S4C -Sianel Pedwar Cymru |
S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru, meaning Channel 4 Wales), currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is (after BBC One, ITV, BBC Two and Sky1) the fifth oldest British television channel.
The channel - initially broadcast on analogue television - was bilingual (Welsh and English) with most of its English-language programming being either simultaneous or deferred broadcasts of Channel 4 programmes (analogue reception of which was unavailable in most of Wales). When digital television arrived several years later, a second channel was added: a 100% Welsh-language service, branded S4C Digidol (S4C Digital).
The analogue version of S4C closed on 31 March 2010, when the Wenvoe transmitter completed the digital switchover. After this, S4C Digidol became the default S4C channel available across Wales available to Welsh viewers on cable, satellite and Freeview, broadcasting only in the Welsh language. |
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| A high definition service called S4C Clirlun (clear picture), simulcasting S4C Digidol, began broadcasting on 30 April 2010 on Freeview channel 53 in Wales. By the end of 2012, S4C has indicated that it plans to produce all of its programming in high definition. |
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| History |
| Before the launch of S4C, Welsh speakers had been served by occasional programmes in Welsh broadcast as regional opt-outs on BBC Wales and HTV Cymru Wales (the ITV franchise in Wales), usually at off-peak or inconvenient times. This was unsatisfactory for Welsh speakers, who saw the arrangement as a sop, and also an annoyance for non-Welsh speakers, who found the English programmes seen in the rest of the UK often rescheduled or not transmitted at all. |
| In 1962 the ITV network had created a licence area for North and West Wales, which was awarded to Wales (West and North) Limited. This traded as Teledu Cymru and provided significant levels of Welsh-language programming. However, problems with transmission infrastructure and poor market research led to financial difficulties within two years and the station was taken over by its neighbour Television Wales and West. |
| During the 1970s, Welsh language activists had campaigned for a TV service in the language, which already had its own radio station, BBC Radio Cymru. Both the Conservative and Labour parties promised a Welsh-language fourth channel, if elected to government in the 1979 General Election. Shortly after the Conservatives won a majority in the election, the new home secretary Willie Whitelaw decided against a Welsh fourth channel, and suggested that, except for an occasional opt-out, the service should be the same as that offered in the rest of the UK. This led to acts of civil disobedience, including refusals to pay the television licence fee, thereby running the risk of prosecution or even a prison sentence, and sit-ins in BBC and HTV studios. Some took more extreme measures, including attacking television transmitters in Welsh-speaking areas. In 1980, the former president of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans, threatened to go on hunger strike if the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher didn't honour its commitment to provide a Welsh language TV service. The channel started broadcasting on 1 November 1982, the night before Channel 4's opening. S4C appointed its first female CEO, Iona Jones in 2005. |
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| Programming |
| S4C's remit is to provide a service which features a wide range of programmes in the Welsh language. Like Channel 4, S4C does not produce programmes of its own; instead, it commissions programmes from BBC Cymru and independent producers (although the quantity purchased from ITV Wales has greatly reduced since the early years of S4C), and it has particularly developed a reputation for commissioning cartoons, such as SuperTed, Sam Tân (which became Fireman Sam in its English version on the BBC) and Shakespeare: The Animated Tales. BBC Wales fulfills its public service requirement by producing programmes in Welsh, including Newyddion, S4C's news bulletin, and a soap opera, Pobol y Cwm, and providing them to S4C free of charge. It has also provided (or licensed) Welsh language versions of English language programmes e.g.: The Tweenies. On the analogue service, S4C showed programmes produced for Channel 4 in the rest of the UK outside of peak hours (usually a few days later). These programmes were provided to S4C by Channel 4, free of charge.
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To make them more accessible to English speakers, all Welsh language programming carries English subtitles on Teletext page 888, with Welsh subtitles on page 889. Both subtitle languages are also available on digital television platforms.
For speakers of English who are learning Welsh, certain programmes, particularly children's programmes Planed Plant Bach and Planed Plant, carry subtitles on page 889 of Teletext, featuring Welsh subtitles with additional English translations in brackets next to more difficult Welsh language words.
TV movies produced for S4C have received some good foreign reviews; Hedd Wyn was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 1993 and Solomon & Gaenor was nominated in 1999. |
| Those who have no interest in Welsh-language television have been known to point their aerials at the nearest English transmitters to avoid S4C, as well as BBC Wales and ITV Wales. However, this practice dates back before the start of S4C in 1982, when Welsh-language programming was included on BBC1 Wales and HTV Wales. S4C sports programme Sgorio has been known to reverse this practice, with English football fans watching S4C as the only British terrestrial broadcaster of Spanish and German league football. |
The S4C analogue signal also spilled over into southeast Ireland. In the past it was rebroadcast in a number of areas there on UHF terrestrial signals by so-called 'deflectors', however Channel 4 is now re-transmitted from satellite by the few remaining deflectors. Up until the 1990s, S4C was also carried by some Irish cable and MMDS providers before being replaced by Channel 4.
Up until 2009, S4C ran its own teletext service, Sbectel. |
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| Digital Channels |
Following the switch off of analogue terrestrial signals on 31 March 2010, Wales became the first fully digital nation in the UK with both S4C and Channel 4 now available to all homes. As a result, S4C now broadcasts solely in Welsh language and, as well as on Freeview in Wales, is available throughout Britain, Ireland and the rest of western Europe on Freesat and Sky. A review commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2004 suggested that "S4C should operate a single core service after digital switchover".
In addition, S4C also operated a sister channel, S4C2 until 2010. It formerly broadcast coverage of the National Assembly for Wales when in session. The programme content was provided by the BBC who, from January 2010, now make it available online and via BBC Parliament. Like the main channel, S4C2 was available within Wales on Freeview and throughout the UK and Ireland on Freesat and Sky. S4C2 had two audio feeds, allowing viewers to select between an untranslated version and an English-only version where all Welsh spoken is translated into English.
Delayed coverage of Assembly proceedings is now broadcast overnight on S4C's main channel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday. In addition to the analogue TV signal transmitted throughout Wales, S4C, along with United News and Media, owned the company S4C Digital Networks (SDN). SDN was awarded the UK-wide contract to provide half a digital multiplex worth of programming. |
| On 27 April 2005 S4C sold its share of SDN to ITV plc for approximately £34 million, though it still has the half-multiplex as of right in Wales. ITV already owned some of SDN due to the consolidation of the ITV industry: Granada bought UNM's stake in SDN, and this was then incorporated into the united ITV plc. In January 2007, S4C announced plans to launch a Welsh-language children's service. The new service, in the form of a programming bloc, launched on 23 June 2008. Under the name "Cyw" (English: Chick), it brings together a wide range of programmes for nursery-age children, and S4C plans eventually to extend the service to include the "Stwnsh" strand for older children and a third service for teenagers and young people. The service currently airs on weekdays from 7am to 1.30pm on S4C. |
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| Funding & Regulation |
S4C is financed from its advertising revenue and a fixed annual grant from the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), receiving £94m of funding in 2007.
Additionally, some Welsh-language programming (including Newyddion and Pobol y Cwm) is produced by BBC Wales as part of the BBC's public service remit, and provided to S4C free of charge. S4C is controlled by the Welsh Fourth Channel Authority (Awdurod Sianel Pedwar Cymru or Awdurdod S4C), an independent body unconnected to Ofcom which regulates other UK television channels such as ITV or Channel 4.
From 2013, responsibility for funding S4C will begin to transfer to the BBC, with the DCMS reducing its funding by 94% by 2015. The BBC will provide around £76m of funding to S4C by this date, resulting in a cut of around 25% to S4C's annual budget. This decision has been challenged by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society), which wants the proposed transfer of responsibility for funding S4C from DCMS to the BBC to be stopped. |
| See: Broadcasting future, time for devolution |
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