Television in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

began in 1952. Initially, all programmes were in English with occasional

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it h ...

programmes. In 1982 Welsh language channel

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

was launched. The digital switchover happened in 2009-2010 and S4C became an exclusively Welsh language channel.

History

Initial broadcasting

Television in the UK started in 1936 as a public service which was free of advertising, but did not arrive in Wales until the opening of the

Wenvoe transmitter The Wenvoe transmitting station, officially known as Arqiva Wenvoe, is the main facility for broadcasting and telecommunications for South Wales and the West Country. It is situated close to the village of Wenvoe in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wale ...

in August 1952. Initially, all programmes were in the English language, although under the leadership of

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

director and controller

Alun Oldfield-Davies Alun Bennett Oldfield-Davies (18 April 1905 – 1 December 1988) was a Welsh broadcaster and public servant. He joined the BBC in 1937, holding several posts before being appointed director of the Welsh Region for BBC radio. Throughout his lo ...

, occasional

programmes were broadcast during closed periods, replacing the

test card A test card, also known as a test pattern or start-up/closedown test, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at sign-on and sign-off). Used since the ea ...

. In 1958, responsibility for programming in Wales fell to

Television Wales and the West Television Wales and the West (TWW) was the British Independent Television (commercial television) contractor for a franchise area that initially served South Wales and West of England (franchise awarded 26 October 1956, started transmissions o ...

, although Welsh language broadcasting was mainly served by the Manchester-based

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

company, producing about an hour a week. BBC Cymru Wales (geograph 6226511) (cropped)

BBC Cymru Wales

The launch of

BBC Cymru Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is b ...

(BBC Wales at the time) on 9 February 1964 provided a specific television service for the country. The new service was heavily promoted (proclaiming that ''Wales gets its very own TV service in 1964!'') with animated promos using the sound of Welsh choirs to explain about interference from the mountains. Two years later in 1966, BBC Cymru Wales' new headquarters at

Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The ma ...

in Cardiff opened and the first colour broadcast for Wales followed in 1970. Into the late 1990s, BBC Cymru Wales continued to expand their services. The first web pages for Wales began to appear on

BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, the childr ...

in 1997, including a variety of features surrounding programming, schedules, community events and other stories. The following year, BBC Wales gained additional air time through the use of a late prime-time to midnight opt-out from new digital channel

BBC Choice BBC Choice was a British digital television channel which was owned by the BBC and was launched on 23 September 1998. It was the first British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in digital format, as well as the BBC's second non-analogue-terres ...

. This lasted until opt-outs ended on the channel in 2001; subsequently BBC Wales opted out of the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

prime-time schedule on digital platforms to broadcast

BBC 2W BBC 2W was a digital television channel run by the BBC in Wales until January 2009. It replaced the standard BBC Two broadcast on digital services in Wales — running on weekdays from 8.30pm to 10pm. Launched on 5 November 2001, it had an in ...

. This latter service closed on 2 January 2009 – prior to the

digital switchover The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...

which would have ceased separate broadcasting on analogue and digital. BBC Cymru Wales is currently based in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a ...

and directly employs some 1,200 people to produce a range of programmes for television, radio and online services in both English and

. BBC Cymru Wales operates two TV channels (

BBC One Wales BBC One Wales is a Welsh television channel owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Re ...

BBC Two Wales BBC Two Wales is the national variation of BBC Two for BBC Cymru Wales. It is broadcast from BBC Cymru Wales New Broadcasting House, Central Square in Cardiff with live continuity provided by a team of announcer/directors. The channel opts out f ...

) and two radio stations (

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Welsh radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the 'Radio 4 Wales' opt-out service (previously the Welsh Home Service). Radio Wales b ...

and

BBC Radio Cymru BBC Radio Cymru is a Welsh language radio network owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts on two stations across Wales on FM, DAB, digital TV and online. The main network broadcasts for hours a day from ...

). The total budget for BBC Cymru Wales (including

's £76 million) is £151 million, £31 million of which is for BBC-produced television productions.

S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru)

On 17 September 1980, the former president of

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

Gwynfor Evans Gwynfor Richard Evans (1 September 1912 – 21 April 2005) was a Welsh politician, lawyer and author. He was President of the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru for thirty-six years and was the first Member of Parliament to represent it at Westm ...

, threatened to go on a hunger strike if the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

government of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

did not honour its commitment to provide a Welsh language television service. On the 1st of November 1982,

(Sianel Pedwar Cymru) was launched bringing together the BBC, HTV and other independent producers to provide an initial service of 22 hours of Welsh-language television. The digital switchover in Wales of 2009-2010 meant that the previously bilingual Channel 4 split into S4C, broadcasting exclusively in Welsh and Channel 4 broadcasting exclusively in English.

ITV Cymru Wales

The broadcasting licence was created for

ITV Cymru Wales ITV Cymru Wales, previously known as Harlech Television and HTV Wales, is the ITV franchise for Wales. The new separate licence began on 1 January 2014, replacing the long-serving dual franchise region serving Wales and the West of England. L ...

following the split of

ITV Wales & West ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

.ITV Cymru Wales news shake-up under new Ofcom licence
Huw Thomas,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

, 23 July 2013 It is hoped that the separate licence will benefit local viewers. In May 2012, Ofcom raised the possibility of a stand-alone licence for Wales. On 25 August 2015, ITV Cymru Wales began broadcasting in HD (prior to this HD viewers in Wales received ITV Central HD), including the company's news service and non-news programming including current affairs and documentaries.

Recent productions

The decision by Julie Gardner, Head of Drama for

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

, to film and produce the 2005 revived version of

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

in Wales is widely seen as a bellwether moment for the industry for the nation.{{cite web , last=Pyke , first=Chris , date=20 March 2018 , title=How Wales built itself a film and TV industry , url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/how-wales-built-itself-film-14387598 , access-date=13 October 2019 , work=WalesOnline This in turn was followed by the opening of the Roath Lock production studios in

. Recent English language programmes that have been filmed in Wales include Sherlock and

His Dark Materials ''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), '' The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and '' The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follo ...

, while other popular series, such as

Hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associate ...

(''Y Gwyll'') and Keeping Faith (''Un Bore Mercher'') have been filmed in both Welsh and English.

References

Television in Wales Entertainment in Wales Mass media in Wales