S4C failing to reach online audiences, says new chairman
S4C is "behind the curve" and has failed to respond to the challenge of reaching audiences on digital platforms, its new chair has said.
By Huw ThomasBBC Wales arts and media correspondent In his first interview, Rhodri Williams also criticised the decision to ditch S4C's HD channel on Freeview, calling it an "enormous strategic mistake" which has damaged its prominence. He said he wanted a public debate to redefine the channel's purpose. Mr Williams became chair of S4C's unitary board on 1 April. It followed months of delays in appointing a successor to Huw Jones. Mr Williams is a former director of the media regulator Ofcom in Wales, and in the 1970s he was among the language activists who were arrested during a campaign to establish S4C. The Covid-19 pandemic has dominated the board's attention during his first few months as chair. Mr Williams praised programmes produced during the pandemic, including the third and final series of Un Bore Mercher, broadcast by the BBC as Keeping Faith, and the outdoor discussion programme Sgwrs dan y Lloer. But he said it was a "must-do" to introduce a new strategy to redefine S4C's purpose in the digital age. "There are some specific challenges with younger audiences, and more specifically with Welsh speakers who live in homes where not everybody speaks Welsh," he said. A decade since significant cuts were made to S4C's budget by the UK government, Mr Williams said it was time to deal with the reality of the financial settlement. He has begun discussing S4C's purpose internally, and he is keen to expand the debate to the TV production industry and the public. "The challenge for S4C is to transform itself from being seen as a linear television channel to being a producer of compelling digital content on a variety of platforms. "[S4C] has been slow to adapt and has tried to maintain a linear channel that did have 36% more funding 10 years ago. "It has tried to maintain that, rather than... transform itself and its services so they are more in tune with what viewers want from us." Mr Williams accepted previous mistakes by the channel have hampered the task of reaching new audiences. On the decision in 2012 to end S4C's high-definition channel on Freeview, he said: "That was given away to save money, and I think it was an enormous strategic error. "The 104 slot on the digital electronic programme guide, the high-definition section, is now occupied by Channel 4 [who] are very pleased to have that. "That's a sign of how valuable that was. In an age where you can't buy a standard definition television any longer, why would one want to opt out of that? I think it has put us in a very difficult position." Independent production companies already provide content for S4C which appears on its digital platforms, including its catch-up service and social media sites. Gareth Williams, the chief executive of Rondo Media, who also chairs industry body TAC, said the sector was ready to react to the challenge. "Maybe there was a time when people thought that producing online content was secondary, and came after those ideas which worked well on the linear channel. "But the world has changed completely."