BBC Cymru Wales faces managed decline without more cash, MPs told

A senior BBC Cymru Wales executive has warned MPs the broadcaster does not have the money to make the content it is currently producing.

Rhys Evans said that without reform to the licence fee, the organisation had faced an “inevitable path of continued and managed decline”.

The chief executive of Welsh language broadcaster S4C, Geraint Evans, said the future of broadcasting in Welsh was in “jeopardy” with resources stretched as the channel delivered programming on social media as well as television.

The TV licence fee – which funds BBC Cymru Wales and most of S4C – is currently up for review with ministers saying they were considering new funding models.

A senior ITV manager told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons the BBC needed a “more sustainable funding model”.

The committee’s MPs are “examining the challenges and opportunities” facing the broadcasting sector in Wales.

In an evidence hearing on Wednesday, BBC executives said they were looking at savings of £9m with 50 posts being cut.

Evans, head of corporate affairs at BBC Cymru Wales, said: “There will be in all likelihood not just for BBC Cymru Wales but for the rest of the BBC additional savings in 2028 and 2029.

“Unless there is future licence fee reform then we are all set on that inevitable path of continued and managed decline.”

He said that while he believed “BBC Cymru Wales is here to stay”, he was “not so confident about the type of content that we presently produce and distribute so effectively, because we just don’t have the money for it”.