9. Debate: Broadcasting

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:13 pm on 14 June 2022.

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Photo of Tom Giffard Tom Giffard Conservative 5:13, 14 June 2022

It's interesting you say that. I'm not sure that a Welsh Parliament would deliver that, and we've not seen any of that evidence today. I know you've got an extensive background in the BBC, but we've not seen that today. All we've seen today is the setting up of a commission that has already decided what it's going to report before it's started.

The UK Government's White Paper on broadcasting reforms, which includes the removal of certain restrictions, will mean that S4C will be able to reach people all across the UK. There's a big wide world out there, and even further afield, and its on-demand service will be even more accessible again. We need to look beyond our own borders. I know it's an alien concept to Plaid Cymru, but there is a world outside Wales, and this White Paper gives S4C, and more importantly the Welsh language, an opportunity to be heard and seen by a much wider audience.

And a final issue: it's estimated by the BBC that £184 million is raised in Wales out of a total UK figure of £3.7 billion. In 2018-19 S4C received £74.5 million of licence fee-generated funding. This puts the total licence fee-generated spend in Wales at £253.5 million—nearly £70 million more than the BBC estimated is raised in Wales. This demonstrates that Wales receives far more in funding from the licence fee, again to the tune of nearly £70 million extra, than it generates itself in Wales. The question that then follows is this: where does the difference in the money come from if this power were to be devolved? One suggestion—and I am wrapping up, Llywydd—from Glasgow Caledonian University's Professor David Hutchison, was that, and I quote,

'it would still be necessary to face the fact that, as there would have to be payment to the UK BBC for common services, then the licence fee in Wales—as in Scotland—might have to be significantly higher than it currently is.'

Would devolution change that situation? Surely, given that families are struggling with surging gas and electric prices, to burden them with significantly higher licence fees is another example of this Welsh Government chasing powers regardless of the cost.