The Trick On S4C By It's Enemies

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

What I'm going to say I've said this before in this blog. But it's worth again chatting again about the Welsh language TV channel S4C. At this moment the UK government is conducting a review of the channel, which should be completed by next month.

But the channel (now thirty five years old) has had some bad publicity for a while now. Facing as it does falling ratings and increased repeats. It will also be moving it's head office from Cardiff to Carmarthen next year. A move that strikes me as reasonable from a Welsh language perspective nonetheless has caused personal problems for people who for example have children taking exams.

But let's chat about the falling ratings. Here is the argument used by S4C's enemies:

S4C is a Welsh language channel.

S4C's ratings are falling.

Therefore the Welsh language is no longer popular

Therefore S4C is a waste of broadcasting space and should be filled by another channel filled with American imports that have been previously been shown years earlier.

Thus the enemies of S4C use the trick that the right wing used against those who claimed unemployment benefit use:

Here are people who abuse the benefit system.

Therefore everybody on benefits abuses the system

Let's punish people on benefits by making the system tougher.

But what the enemies of S4C do not tell you is that unlike every other TV channel in Britain aside from the Gaelic speaking BBC Alba S4C has to cater for a wide variety of users in just one channel. What other channel has to produce output in just one stream which is like BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, BBC News Channel, BBC Parliament, Cbeebies and CBBC?

Therefore you might be happy to watch a sports programme but not the young person's music show after that. It's not a question of language. It's a question of your personal likes and dislikes.

However S4C, unlike any other major free to air provider cannot generally offer you an alternative without you needing to look at their on demand service.

What S4C actually needs is an S4C2. The programmes on the channel may not be necessarily new. But it will provide the alternative that the channel needs from making viewers channel surf or internet wander. Even if it's only broadcasting between say six pm and midnight it is offering a Welsh language alternative.

And the point to say here is that we're only talking about one extra channel stream as opposed to the many other broadcasters have on offer.

Without a second channel S4C will be as it is at present.Venerable to it's enemies.

Until the next time.