This article caught my eye, but it’s going to take me a few more goes through and a bit of dictionary-trawling to understand it properly:
It seems to be saying that there’s a suggestion that S4C shouldn’t be a solely Welsh-language channel any more. Have I understood that correctly? Are there important nuances there that I’ve missed?
What do people think about this?
I admit I used GT, but the basic idea seems to be to attract non-Welsh speakers to the channel. I don’t know if the idea is then that they might like it so much, they might decide to stay and watch some of the Welsh output.
Julian Lewis Jones, who is an actor and presenter, suggested on a radio programme the other day that S4C should produce some programmes in English because BBC Wales is tending to make “programmes in Wales” (Doctor Who, Casualty etc) rather than programmes about Wales, or for Welsh interest / taste.
The idea has some merit, in that he is exactly right that there is very little programming in English specifically for a Welsh audience, the obvious problem being that there is one Welsh language channel serving Wales, and umpteen thousand English channels, (though only two, I think, claiming Welshness). It seems a little odd to use the money meant for Welsh programming for English language programming that other providers are already paid for (but don’t produce).
The other, far more fatal point to the argument, is that we have been trying to “include some English so that non Welsh-speakers can take part” in community activities for years, and it almost invariably leads to more and more English and less and less Welsh.
Thanks, Iestyn - I think that was the drift I got. I’m glad to see that I understood it fairly well (but dismayed to see another element of Welsh-language provision apparently under threat).