As S4C’s funding seems to be under threat once again, I’ve received these pdfs, which might be of interest to some of you… 
Briff Gorffennaf Cymraeg T.pdf (71.8 KB)
Briff Gorffennaf Saesneg T.pdf (71.3 KB)
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A persuasive and well-presented brief but, as far as I can see, no call for support from the public - or maybe they’re not allowed to solicit support?
That would be my guess… although we’ll see what happens if they really start to feel the pinch - Ian Jones was pretty clear at the last Eisteddfod (or the one before?) that there was no room at all for further cuts…
I am not sure that 'reviving" this topic is the correct term! S4C’s funding or lack of it is an ongoing subject, I’m afraid. I have just, with difficulty, listened to the Welsh Affairs Select committee 30/01/2017 with chair and chief exec of the channel. .May have further cuts, despite last year.'s assurances. More cuts every year. Plan to move to new site - promised funding presumed, but will it come? Oh, all I can say is, I heard two sad men desperately clinging to the dregs of hopes!
I would be very very grateful to anyone who writes to their MP or AM or both, supporting S4C.
Already repeats are up and up. HD was reintroduced for last year’s Euros (pel-droed) on the basis of that promise about funding. It is needed, so something else would have to go if the funding is cut as mentioned on 27/01/2017!
I keep remembering Gwynfor’s hunger strike! He won for us. Should we not do what we can to keep what he gained?
@Deborah-SSi @aran @Iestyn?
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This saddens me. I’m happy to help in whatever way i can.
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Diolch. I am about to update the Submitting the Petition thread, but I may start a new thread instead, just Petition Update. Ddoe, I felt so sad, but the signatures went from 1215 to 1232 overnight and made me feel better, not that a few thousand will influence a Government if 1.6 million generates a debate but no action!
I still think S4C needs some kind of direct subscription that would accept overseas viewers as well. I would be happy to subscribe to S4C as a viewer, whereas I’m not prepared to pay a TV licence fee to the BBC when I don’t have a TV, I would rarely watch it if I did, and I’m not convinced that BBC funding is going to be given in adequate amounts to S4C. They make some programmes available to international viewers now. Surely it can’t be that hard technically to also make programmes available to subscribers, so viewers outside the S4C broadcasting area could pay a subscription and be allowed online access to a wider variety of shows.
I know there are always copyright issues etc, but if they make their own shows, or pay others to make them, I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to make them available to whomever they choose. It seems a case of bureaucracy gone mad if they can’t.
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I think it’s probably a case of the expense of setting up and operating the system versus expected returns. If it costs a couple of tens of thousands to set up (and it could well do) that has to be balanced against (going to get myself in trouble here) a couple of people in Utah and another in Slovenia being willing to actually cough up a subscription of (say) a fiver a month.
It’s usually the music, the copyright of which is not controlled by S4C. S4C has, I think, a very painful choice between supporting/using/commissioning contemporary Welsh language music and making it easier to distribute programmes outside of the UK.
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S4C like anything that is predominantly to do with arts and culture is really always going to be at the mercy of public opinion and in times of financial constraints it is always going to be squeezed. Fighting the good fight to maintain support is very important, but ultimately it needs a more substantial and sustainable financial footing.
We need to be actively seeking out all sorts of alternative sources of finance - both directly and indirectly. Ideally there will be some benefactors out there or supporters with both financial clout, or with expertise they can bring to bear, both in and outside of Wales, who maybe could support production of materials that S4C could use.
I think S4C is highly reliant on “good-will” from many who are currently involved in producing materials and I think those of us who watch it are very grateful for that. If only the Welsh born billionaires out there like Michael Moritz or Terry Matthews were enthused about these things, but I don’t think that they are. If only there were significant Tax incentives for producing materials - I think there should be.
A bit of a ramble - sorry, but I do fear for the future, because the funding base is so fragile and it is clearly being squeezed to a level that it is unlikely that it will be able to sustain or commision the number of high quality productions that it needs.
Just the sort of idea to appeal to a Tory Secretary of State and the notion might even appeal to very rich Welshmen who speak no Welsh and don’t see any point to the language! Anyone with a Tory MP who might respond to a letter from a constitient?
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I was thinking about a lot of things in this area and have just realised how complicated the funding lanscape for the arts really is - well beyond my level of comprehension. On one side I was trying to work out what funding incentives there were for entrepreneurs - akin to the Tax reliefs you get for scientific R&D, which I know quite well, where investors qualify for what is called EIS tax relief and several other things, but I can’t really fathom out what is out there for arts and culture and who draws on it. I guess that is why we have people who know all these things running S4C etc.
On the other side I was wondering about the charities etc and we obviously have the arts council for Wales and a few others and I was trying to compare their funding with that for the arts council for England and on top or separate from both of these there is the British Council as well - the British council invests £760m a year to promote the English Language and suprort education around the world in English. There are other govenerment related activities related to the English language, so each year the English language has at least a £1billion pumped into it. I don’t know how much funding the British Council gets from the Foreign and commonwealth office and it does generate a lot of its revenues from its activities.
I don’t know the ins and outs of all of these things and if there are any fairnes/unfairness issues, but it seems to me that the investment is Welsh culture, both at home and overseas is certainly not large comparatively and I’m confident that there could be plenty of justifiable arguments raised to invest more, without any suggestion of favourable treatment etc?
I’m not sure where you are, but if in Wales, you could contact your MP and AM and ask if the Welsh Language Act means that the British Council has a duty to support Cymraeg as an official British language!
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The MP might be an interesting choice. I have a Labour AM and a labour MP in a constituency which neighbours the constitiuency of the son of a former leader of the labour party; a father who was chair of the British council until 2009/10 and a person who I seriously doubt cares very much for Welsh language and culture and famously quoted amongst many other things:
‘Between the mid sixteenth and mid eighteenth centuries Wales had practically no history at all, and even before that it was a history of rural brigands who have been ennobled and called princes.’
I don’t know much about the British Council to be honest and it may be a very worthy organisation that does already support Welsh language and culture, so in the first place i think I would like to simply understand the whole landscape, before making accusations and drawing opinions etc. I think British Council Wales has supported many Welsh culture and language things, so have to be careful not to shoot from the hip and be too cynical.
Oh dear. I have a terrible habit of presuming the worst, which is very bad of me. Re the son of the father, the poor lad cannot help his upbringing and education!!! 
Re the British Council, clearly I must look at their web site and find out about their support for Cymraeg.
Just in passing, how many ‘princes’, kings, lords etc, in England would have been seen as anything but brigands by today’s standards??
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Or how many of them still are?
I know that it has a programme for sending people out to teach Welsh in Argentina. I don’t know of anything else, but that is probably more of a reflection of my ignorance.
I didn’t realise that program was funded by the British Council! Good for them! I will definitely find out more and perhaps suggest a bit of help for S4C International in the channels hour of need!
I read they had supported 9bach - not that I know much about 9bach, much more up your street I think.
Sorry, I am the most ignorant Welsh person ever on the subject of music! But today we learn that no funding is available for planned new HQ for S4C at Trinity St. David’s. Gradually, drip by drip, the money disappears!
I’m not sure what this means either, because the head of the group that came up with suggesting it would be better off in Swansea is someone quite involved with S4C productions and a shrewd businessman, so I’m going to watch this one before drawing any conclusions either way.