BBC Trust

Audiences in Wales rate the BBC’s quality and distinctiveness higher than any other audience in the UK’s nations, according to figures published alongside the BBC Annual Report and Accounts today. 

The Annual Report and Accounts has been published along with the latest audience research and the Annual Review of BBC Audience Council Wales, the advisory body to the BBC Trust. 

Four in five people in Wales agree that the BBC delivers quality, and almost two thirds agree that the BBC delivers distinctive content. Almost two thirds also agree that the BBC delivers value for money, the highest score since 2009. 

There were significant online successes, with substantial growth in BBC iPlayer usage in Wales; S4C’s presence on iPlayer going from strength to strength, drawing 120,000 requests a week; and the BBC’s new Welsh language online and mobile service Cymru Fyw seeing 45,000 unique browsers a week. 

The past year saw marked successes in both home-grown programming for audiences in Wales, and in BBC Wales contribution to the BBC’s UK-wide output, where it continued to punch above its weight – from the return of bilingual crime drama Hinterland to frank documentary series Young, Welsh and Pretty Skint, award-winning documentary Life After April, and Welsh Heartland, about the Llŷn Peninsula’s struggle to preserve its identity. BBC Wales production War and Peace proved a hit across the UK and around the world, the return of Sherlock gripped 11.6 million viewers on New Year’s Day, and there was continued success for Casualty, Doctor Who, Crimewatch and Coast.  The BBC Cymru Wales opt-out programming on BBC One and Two reached a third of all Welsh adults every week.

However, the BBC’s Audience Council Wales has highlighted concerns about the level of portrayal of contemporary Wales on the BBC’s UK-wide TV and radio services, particularly in drama and comedy, and a need for more English-language TV programming made in Wales for Wales.

BBC Trustee for Wales, Elan Closs Stephens, said:

"BBC Cymru Wales continues to make an extraordinary contribution to the BBC’s output across the UK and has proven itself time and time again as a hub of quality for British TV production.  The message from audiences is very clear, however, that they want the BBC to do more to reflect modern Wales and the lives of its people, and as we come to the end of the current Charter and look ahead to the BBC of the next decade, that’s a challenge the BBC must meet."

This year the BBC’s radio stations also continued to perform better in Wales than in any of the other UK nations, and BBC Radio Wales and Radio Cymru had a successful year including extensive coverage of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, although both stations saw a drop in reach and share over the year.

Over the past year Audience Council Wales held seventeen public events across Wales, gathering the public’s views on the BBC’s Charter Review, the performance of its services, and other issues.  In addition, a seminar was held by the BBC Trust in Cardiff in October as part of its public consultation on the future of the BBC for the next Charter.

Notes to Editors

1. The BBC Annual Report has been published here.  This year for the first time the Annual Report is being formally laid in the National Assembly for Wales, Scottish Parliament, and Northern Ireland Assembly, in addition to the UK Parliament.
2. The BBC Audience Council Wales Annual Review has been published here.
3. The Audience Council Wales advises the BBC Trust on the interests of audiences in Wales.  It contributes to the Trust’s decision-making about BBC services and high-level strategy, and it raises emerging issues for local audiences.  The Council is made up of volunteers from different backgrounds and experiences from across Wales.  More information can be found here.