For decades I have, without knowing it, been walking past the place where Broadcasting in Wales began. It launched on 13th February 1923 in the building that’s now a NISA store, opposite Cardiff Castle. I spotted the commemorative plaque only recently.
A pot of £60 million to boost production in under-served genres of Public Service Broadcasting on TV and Radio sounds like good news but the DCMS consultation document gives cause for concern to the Nations and Regions.
Nowhere in the document is there evidence of an adequate understanding of the position of PSB output in Wales. Continue reading Contestable Funding for PSB genres – good for Wales?
The Media Policy Group of the Institute of Welsh Affairs made a submission on 3rd March to the Inquiry into the future of S4C which is being held by the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee of the National Assembly of Wales.
This inquiry precedes that expected from the DCMS.
Continue reading National Assembly of Wales Inquiry into the Future of S4C
Sodom and Gomorrah came to mind. I was watching the Assembly’s Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee’s scrutiny session with Lord Tony Hall last month. The Director General of the BBC proved himself cannier than God – at least on the issue of funding for English language television for Wales. Continue reading Waiting for the Money – Funding English Language TV in Wales
During this year’s Celtic Media Festival in Dungarvan I was on a panel about factual tv. I took immediate issue with the assumption behind the session’s brief – The most prolific and successful genre in the Celtic nations is factual, both in English and in the indigenous languages. Is factual prolific and what is the measure of success? But further, I question the festival’s decision to ignore the biggest challenge to the factual genre – adequate media policy.
Continue reading The Politics of Celtic Media – Get Your Facts Straight
PSB Television in a digital world – what’s the recipe for Wales?
On April 6th there was a chance to get Welsh voices on the record at the session for Wales of David Puttnam’s Future of PSB TV Inquiry. The event was hosted by Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. This independent inquiry is gathering evidence from around the UK and will report in June.
I spoke for the Institute of Welsh Affairs alongside Angharad Mair (Tinopolis, BAFTA Cymru), Huw Jones (S4C), Rhys Evans (BBC Cymru Wales) and Ian McKenzie (Nations and Regions, Channel 4).
See Future of TV Inquiry – Content and Platforms in a Digital Age
“The Inquiry has been set up to consider the nature, purpose and place of public service television today and for the future. It aims to address how public service content can be most effectively nurtured taking into consideration a range of services, platforms and funding models. Continue reading Future of PSB TV Inquiry – Wales
The series DNA Cymru for S4C,which I produced for Green Bay Media along with Wynford Jones, has earned a Nomination in the Best Factual Series category of the Celtic Media Festival 20 -22 April.
Another fascinating group of people on my workshop for academics about involvement in tv documentary on 1st March.
This three-hour session for Cardiff University Graduate College covers what an academic needs to know about how tv documentary gets developed, commissioned and made and how academics can contribute successfully and enjoyably. Universities commonly offer training in how to engage with news via sound-bites but seldom on what it means to be involved in long-form output or series.
The feedback was uniformly excellent.
On the day of the IWA’s Cardiff Media Summit I fronted an analysis of the challenges facing broadcasting in Wales shown on The Wales Report BBC One Wales ahead of Huw Edwards’s interview with BBC Director of Strategy, James Purnell.
BBC ‘committed’ to Welsh broadcasting BBC News
See article on IWA Audit and associated issues:
Analysis – IWA Wales Media Audit BBC News
S4C ‘cycle of decline’ funding fear BBC News
‘Lamentable’ lack of BBC Wales TV programmes in English BBC News
“This is the story I want to focus on this evening.” said Tony Hall, Director General of the BBC in a speech given to Cardiff Business Club on Monday 23rd November. “The BBC as a home for distinctive quality and creativity, supporting the best talent and brightest ambition – a driving force behind the UK’s extraordinary global competitiveness in the creative industries.”
Continue reading What’s in it for Wales? Tony Hall’s new BBC