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Press Releases
BBC and S4C announce new strategic partnership
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The BBC Governors and the S4C Authority today announced a new strategic
partnership for the development of programming and services for Welsh language
television audiences.
The governing bodies described the settlement as a
"significant milestone" in the relationship between the two public service
broadcasters.
The agreement sets out how the corporation will strengthen and extend its
support for S4C over the next three years as the Welsh language channel
implements its programme strategy in the run-up to digital switchover in Wales
in 2009.
The BBC has a statutory duty to provide S4C with over 10 hours of Welsh
programming each week - made by BBC Wales and funded by the licence fee.
The
BBC's current contribution includes the international news service, Newyddion,
and the daily drama, Pobol y Cwm.
As part of the new strategic partnership, the BBC will:
 increase its annual spend on programme-making for S4C from just under
£22m in 2006/07 to just over £25m by 2008/09;
increase the number of programmes it produces for S4C. Detailed
programming plans are currently being discussed with S4C;
establish a joint planning framework with S4C that details how the two
broadcasters will discuss and agree which programmes the BBC contributes to
S4C;
provide, for the first time, BBC Wales-produced programmes on S4C's
broadband and on-demand services;
share its annual spending plans with S4C in advance. Hitherto, the BBC
has only published financial information retrospectively in its Annual Report.
The new agreement reflects the provisions of this year's Government White Paper
on the future of the BBC.
The agreement also addresses the challenges set out
in the Laughton Report to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in 2004
and last year's Ofcom review of public service television broadcasting.
The
Partnership will also require the BBC Governors and S4C Authority to develop
performance targets and indicators to measure success for audiences.
The Chairman of the BBC, Michael Grade, said: "BBC Wales's programmes have
played a major role in the success of S4C for many years.
"We are delighted that
this new partnership will strengthen and extend the BBC's contribution.
"I'm
certain Welsh language audiences will reap the benefits."
The Chairman of S4C, John Walter Jones, said: "The new partnership provides a
welcome new chapter in the relationship between S4C and the BBC.
"We are
grateful to the BBC for the extensive support enshrined in this settlement."
The Controller of BBC Wales, Menna Richards, said: "Digital developments pose
enormous challenges and opportunities for all Welsh language media.
"By working
closely together, in the spirit of this new agreement, the BBC and S4C stand
the very best chance of strengthening and extending Welsh language services for
audiences of all ages."
The Chief Executive of S4C, Iona Jones, said: "This is excellent news for Welsh
language audiences who will benefit from the expansion of the BBC's
contribution to S4C on television and online."
Notes to Editors
As proposed in the Government White Paper, A public service for all: the BBC in
the digital age, published in March 2006, the Agreement represents a new
settlement between the BBC and S4C, which provides clarity to S4C about the
levels of funding involved, together with control over the commissioning of the
programmes to be provided and how the budget is used, but consistent with the
BBC's editorial values and obligations to the licence fee payer.
BBC Wales Press Office/S4C Press Office
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