Devolved S4C 'makes more sense'

The BBC Wales-produced Pobol y Cwm is a staple of the S4C schedule BBC 'wants to help broadcasters'

The Welsh assembly's presiding officer says it is time to ask if control of S4C and its budget should be devolved.

Dafydd Elis Thomas said he thought it made more sense for Welsh-language broadcasting to be devolved to the assembly government.

He raised the issue at a meeting of Cardiff Business Club after a speech by BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons.

S4C is financed by the UK Government and it said it would be up to politicians to change its status.

BBC Wales provides more than 10 hours of programming a week for the channel. Lord Elis Thomas said on Monday: "They [S4C] are a uniquely established public service broadcaster in Wales of 25 years standing and therefore their time for reviewing their governance has surely come." "Does it make sense that a Welsh-language broadcaster is a creature of a UK government department?" he added.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales on Tuesday, he said it was not a policy matter for him, but it was his job to stimulate debate.

Dafydd Elis Thomas thinks S4C should come under Welsh Assembly Government control

"We're having a very serious debate on the future of broadcasting in Wales in both languages and Sir Michael Lyons made some very interesting noises about partnerships involving the BBC, the ITV system such as it is now, and also of course the other big partner is S4C.

"If we were looking for new investment, let's say in a new broadcasting centre with new technology, then a partnership between the broadcasters that doesn't affect editorial control, with possibly some funding from Welsh government would make a lot of sense, I think," he said.

"I would have thought that in terms of the economy of broadcasting it makes more sense for the whole of Welsh-language broadcasting to be devolved so that those partnerships can be built up."

'Quite curious'

An S4C spokesperson said: "S4C is financed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and is accountable to Westminster. It is a matter for politicians to change this status."

Liberal Democrat AM Eleanor Burnham said she was surprised by Lord Elis Thomas's call.

"Naturally, we would welcome the prospect of further powers over the Welsh language, and also a devolved budget with which to deliver Welsh-language broadcasting," she said.

"However, for the presiding officer of the assembly to publicly declare his support for a devolved S4C is quite curious".

She said Alun Ffred Jones, the Plaid Cymru heritage minister in the assembly government had "expressed the opposite view to the broadcasting committee despite the fact that devolution of broadcasting is Plaid party policy".

"Coming so soon after Plaid's U-turn on student top-up fees, this statement by a senior party member is indicative of some very real problems within Plaid as they attempt to assert themselves within the Labour-Plaid coalition".