, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
—and the six nations games particularly.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
But, given your earlier statement, you do recognise the relative importance of rugby here in Wales—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Diolch. Yes, I just wanted to ask about sports rights, then. Obviously, there's been an indication from the Minister, John Whittingdale, that if Wales were to request adding certain sporting events in Wales to the list of free-to-air, then he'd be open to…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Okay.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
No, I'm just thinking—and I know that we will be coming on to sports broadcasting in a moment—when Amazon took on the rights for the autumn internationals, they actually provided their own Welsh-medium feed of commentary, et cetera. Is that something that you…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Just on that, I always welcome those kinds of relations and working across channels. Just coming back to the Wrexham-Yeovil game—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Yes. That's fine.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
The ask would be the six nations. I don't think we'd realistically be looking beyond that. But you've no issue either with differentiation between some listings being relevant to nations or regions, particularly because, obviously, we have the Scottish FA Cup…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Six nations particularly.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
That's why I'm asking, because you can reply. Yes, yes.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
But is there sufficient recognition within the BBC in a broader sense of the relative importance of rugby in Wales compared to other parts of the UK? I'm sure there is.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Thank you very much. In 2021, the BBC lost the rights to broadcast the rugby autumn internationals in Wales. It went behind a paywall, of course. And in the same year, the biggest audience for any broadcast in Wales was for the Wales versus France rugby match…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
But it’s double the budget and seven times more output—that’s quite significant, isn't it? Or am I misinterpreting the figures?
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Yes, just to develop that point further, we know, as we've heard, that the total expenditure on the BBC's local content television in Scotland is £72 million, which is double, to all intents and purposes, what we receive in Wales. That's one statistic. The…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
So, what about the decline in online audiences? There's been a decrease of 6 per cent. We've talked a bit about radio.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Yes, I just wanted to move on, really, and ask you why you believe that radio listening in Wales has declined more year-on-year than the UK average. And, perhaps, on the tail end of that, because we're discussing digital too, there's been a reduction in Wales…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
They say that already, Alun. [Laughter.]
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
I see. Yes, okay.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
It's interesting that you said that you're not sort of necessarily looking for market share; all you want is enough market share to justify the licence fee. Well, we could ask you to quantify that, couldn't we, but, you know, that's—?
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
But to what extent, therefore, have you considered the effect of moving into that space on the ecosystem that already exists, or have you not considered that at all?
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
No, but plurality is important, and so the more providers in that space—. Because what we’ll see in the end is that it'll be only the BBC left in that space.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
I just wanted to come in, and thank you, Chair, for letting me. There was mention of plurality in terms of local news and so on by Rhuanedd, and there was also a reference to the 'across the UK' plan. However, what that does, of course, is it takes resources…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
Well, maybe someone can show me how to use the app properly, then if—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
When I used to open the app, the news that I'd chosen would be at the top, but now I have to go past the UK news to reach the Welsh news.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Public service broadcasting in Wales: evidence session with BBC
I agree. I find the new app worse because I have to scroll further to find Welsh news, personally. And I say that in all seriousness.
