BBC Cymru WalesManagement Review
2013/14

Management Review 2013/14 – WalesThe BBC belongs to the public.
They own it, they love it, andthey expect only the best from it.
Every day we have to show weare worthy of that commitment.
If you wish to find out more about
the BBC’s year – including full financial
statements and performance against
other public commitments – then please
visit www.bbc.co.uk/annualreport

Contents
01
02
04
11
13
14
15

Director’s introduction
Two minute summary
Service performance
Looking ahead
Key priorities for next year
Contacts
Wales management

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Front cover
Hinterland/Y Gwyll – broadcast on
BBC One Wales, BBC Four and S4C
Sourced from: Fiction Factory/S4C/
All3Media/Tinopolis
Page 10Sourced from: Chris Christodoulou

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Director’s introduction‘‘This review shares both
our successes and ourchallenges – and very often
they are the two sides of thesame coin.’’Choosing a personal highlight from the last year is a pretty tallorder. Is it the warmth and wit of The Call Centre, the global scaleand success of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, the brooding
beauty of Hinterland or that thrilling denouement to Sherlock?
There have been many landmark moments to celebrate overthe past 12 months, of which we are immensely proud, but there
are also quieter successes that have given just as much pleasure.
Take BBC Radio Wales’s editorial transformation over recent
years – and its continued strong performance. Or the reinventionof our Welsh language news programme, Newyddion 9, with
its sharper and bolder agenda. In both cases the ambition andcommitment of the teams have been infectious and inspiring.
This review shares both our successes and our challenges – andvery often they are the two sides of the same coin.
Our audiences on BBC One Wales and BBC Two Wales are
the highest for a decade – but the challenge of maintaining abroad range of output is becoming far harder as savings biteOur interactive services on mobile and tablet devices are
growing quickly – but we will need to move faster online
to keep up with our audiences’ expectations
Our contribution to the BBC’s UK networks has neverbeen greater or broader – but we know it must do more
to portray Wales.
I believe that if we are candid and determined, we will meet
all these challenges head-on. It will take imagination and nolittle ingenuity, of course, but I see no shortage of either.

Rhodri Talfan Davies
Director, BBC WalesManagement Review 2013/14 – Wales01

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Two minute summary
Facts and figures about the performanceand output of BBC WalesWorldwide
The number of countries to simultaneously show
the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who.

BBC Wales online
Unique browsers to BBC Wales’s
online content each week.

98

3.7m
Audience
Average BBC One UK audience
for Sherlock.

Audience appreciation
Audience appreciation score
for Max on St David’s Day.

93

11.8m

Approval of the BBC in Wales(mean score out of 10)
Source: ART/Kantar

7.14

7.08

6.89

Television weekly reach(based on 15-minute consecutive reach) (000s)
Source: BARB

5.63

5.64

5.47

940

945

970

183

174
155

2011/122012/132013/14

General impressionof the BBC
Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

2011/122012/13

Value for moneyof the licence fee

2013/142011/122012/132013/14

BBC Wales
English language television

2011/122012/132013/14

BBC Wales on S4C

02

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Two minute summary
BBC Wales English language television
Top Ten Series and Top Five Individual Programmes 2013/14

BBC Wales on S4C
Top Ten Series and Top Five Individual Programmes 2013/14

English language series

Series on S4C

Wales Today at 6.30pm

305,000

Pobol y Cwm

76,000Hinterland

287,000

Y Clwb Rygbi (Pro12)

74,000The Indian Doctor

264,000

Yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol: Mwy o’r Maes

33,000

Police 24/7

246,000

Y Clwb Rygbi Rhyngwladol

26,000Weatherman Walking

240,000

Yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol: Seremonïau

23,000Coming Home

229,000

Yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol: Y Babell Lên

21,000Swansea: Back on the Streets

226,000

Newyddion 9

19,000

Family Life Swap

224,000

Pawb a’i Farn

19,000Swansea Market

223,000

Taro Naw

19,000X-Ray

218,000

Yr Eisteddfod Genedlaethol: Prynhawniau

17,000English language programmes

Programmes on S4C

Max Boyce’s Big Birthday

425,000

Pobol y Cwm: Nadolig

70,000Jonathan Davies: Trimsaran Boy

318,000

Argyfwng Ffermydd Mynydd

43,000

Scrum V: Six Nations Preview

230,000

Stori’r Storm

36,000

Family Life Swap at Christmas

205,000

Pawb a’i Farn: Is-Etholiad Môn

28,000

Jamie Owen: Fat and Forty Something

183,000

Rhyfel D.T. Davies: Heb Ryddid Heb Ddim

26,000Source: BARB
Figures include any repeats in the same week

BBC Wales website: Weekly unique browsers(million)
Source: BBC

3.65

Radio weekly reach (adults)(000s)
Source: RAJAR/RSMB/Ipsos-MORI

0.040

471

461

468

138

0.035

144
128

2.68
2.38
0.021

2011/122012/132013/14English language sites
Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

2011/122012/13

Welsh language sites

2013/142011/122012/13

BBC Radio Wales

2013/142011/122012/132013/14

BBC Radio Cymru
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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Service performance

English Language Programming –BBC One Wales/BBC Two Wales
Our over-riding priority this year has been to offer a more
contemporary picture of modern Wales in all its extraordinary
diversity – and that ambition has been rewarded with our highest
audiences in a decade across news and general programming.
In January, we broke new ground on BBC One Wales with thebilingual drama series Hinterland (also broadcast on S4C as
Y Gwyll). Its gritty storylines and outstanding performancesdelivered record audiences, and its UK-wide success on BBC Fourin May 2014 augur well for the second series.
On TV, radio and online, the special Live Longer Wales season
inspired us all to lead healthier lifestyles at home and at work.
This timely and much talked about season – including The Welsh
Weight Clinic, Family Life Swap and Is My Job Killing Me? – was seenby almost 40% of adults in Wales.
Throughout the year, our programming looked to get under
the skin of modern Wales – from The Scarlets’ insight into life at
one of our rugby regions to the emotional trials and tribulationsof The Country Midwives. A second series of Police 24/7 also
revealed some of the sobering realities of policing south Wales.

In news and sport, BBC Wales Today attracted an average audienceof 305,000 at 6.30pm (and more than 1.3 million each week acrossall its bulletins) – its highest level for nearly ten years. And The Wales
Report with Huw Edwards continues to attract a large and diverse
audience for its weekly examination of politics and power.
Sports programming also attracted major audiences, withcomprehensive coverage of the Pro 12 and the Six Nations. Scrum V
is now established as the BBC’s most trusted rugby service, and it
has been at the heart of our coverage of the dispute between therugby regions and the WRU.
Powerful documentary output included a revealing portrait of theformer rugby international Jonathan Davies, and the compelling
The Girl with Two Hearts. Former Labour Minister and union
activist Dr Kim Howells also provided a moving personal memoirof the miner’s strike to mark the 30th anniversary of the dispute.
Finally, we never forget that Wales can be wonderfully entertaining
and Max Boyce’s Big Birthday attracted the highest audience ofthe year while Rhod Gilbert once again took the plunge for his
Work Experience. We also dived into the archive to celebrate BBC
Wales’s 50th birthday and gave the audience the chance to laughwith us (and at us) with a light-hearted stroll down memory lane.

A strong journalistic thread ran through much of ourprogramming: X-Ray’s investigation into a Swansea call centre
selling bogus satellite warranties resulted in jail sentences fora number of staff, and Week In Week Out ran a series ofinvestigations through the year assessing the impact of the winterstorms and the performance of the Welsh education system.

Is My Job Killing Me? A part of the Live Longer Wales season

Management Review 2013/14 – WalesPC Debbie Johnson appeared in Police 24/7

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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Service performance

BBC Wales on the networks
The year was a significant milestone in the development of
network production in Wales. First and foremost 2013 saw
the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who which was celebrated
right across the world.
The anniversary programme was simulcast in 98 countries andshown at the same time in 1,500 cinemas across six continents.
An Adventure in Space and Time – a drama by Mark Gatiss andproduced by BBC Wales – recounted the story of the first ever
episode of Doctor Who.
The return of Sherlock in 2014 (produced by Hartswood) also
created international headlines. An average audience of almost
12 million viewers tuned into the third series – making it themost watched BBC drama series in over a decade.

As well as producing the coverage of the BBC Cardiff Singer ofthe World 30th Anniversary competition – which was broadcast
on BBC Four, BBC Two Wales and, for the first time, on S4C –our music television team delivered some striking documentaries
on contemporary music for BBC Four. These included a profile ofNile Rogers, writer of some of the most famous songs in pop
music history.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, adapted by Hattie Naylor and producedby the BBC Wales radio drama team, continued to delight BBC
Radio 4 listeners. Our dramas for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3
featured established Welsh writers, including Meic Povey andMalcolm Pryce, as well as introducing writers new to radio, suchas Katy Wix and Paul Jenkins.

As part of the 70th anniversary of BBC Radio 3’s Composer of theWeek, around 4,500 people contacted the team with suggestions
The first series of Atlantis, a fantasy drama, was launched inof composers who have never been featured on the programme.
autumn 2013 on BBC One with an average audience of 5.8 million.
The virtually unknown 19th century French composer, Louise
Made by independent Urban Myth Films and written by Howard
Farrenc, was the first of these to feature with many more to follow.
Overman, a second series is already in production in south Walesand north Africa.
We also continued to expand our work on Radio 4. In partnershipwith BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland, we produced Young
A second series of the CBBC drama Wizards vs Aliens was made
Devolutionaries, where teenagers drawn from all three nations
by BBC Wales at our Roath Lock studios, as well as Casualty, whichinvestigated the impact of devolution on their lives. A two-parthas attracted very strong audiences across the year and won an
documentary, presented by Cerys Matthews, explored theaward for its outstanding storyline on female genital mutilation.
cultural and linguistic landscape of Wales through the prism of
The Call Centre, a documentary series for BBC Three, attracted
a journey down the Welsh M1, aka the A470.
critical acclaim and some of the best factual audience numbers
ever for the channel. Crimewatch made headlines with its special
programme on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann andled to significant developments in the investigation.

The Day of the Doctor – a worldwide success

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales05

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Service performance

BBC Wales on S4C
We saw a year of real editorial progress in 2013/14 for our
output on S4C – and Newyddion 9, Pobol y Cwm and Y Clwb Rygbi
continued to play a leading role in the channel’s schedule.
However, overall audience levels were disappointing again thisyear, with further falls in weekly reach. We are working closelywith the team at S4C to address the audience challenges.

Although our current affairs strand, Taro Naw, came to an end in
autumn 2013 our commitment to long-form journalism continued
under the brand of Newyddion Arbennig. In January Stori’r Storm
looked at the impact of storms on coastal communities in Wales,
while Cysgod Cynheidre looked at the deep scars which still exist
within the old coal mining communities 30 years after the startof the miner’s strike.

Pobol y Cwm’s storylines reflected the lighter shades of daily life
as well as dealing with more serious issues such as paedophilia
and steroid abuse. Plans are also well under way for the 40th
anniversary of the series in October 2014.

Opportunities for public debate were extended with an extra
edition of our debate programme Pawb a’i Farn, before theAnglesey by-election. A special discussion programme, Ein BarnNi, was also produced to coincide with a week of broadcasts on
S4C, by and for, young people.

Y Clwb Rygbi provided comprehensive coverage of Welsh rugby
broadcasting the Pro 12, the national team’s tour to Japan, andfull coverage of the highs and lows of the Autumn Internationals
and Six Nations Championship.
Our main news programme Newyddion 9 was re-launched at theend of April 2013 in a new 9pm slot following a comprehensive
review. With Bethan Rhys Roberts as the main anchor, theprogramme provides more in-depth and distinctive coverageof Welsh stories – as well as the main British and world news of
the day. Additional news programmes have also been produced
in response to the big news stories of the year including theconviction of Mark Bridger for the murder of April Jones, andthe deaths of Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher.
Alongside this we re-launched our political coverage with
Newyddion 9: Y Sgwrs enjoying a wider remit, offering analternative view of the political headlines in Cardiff andWestminster as they impact communities across Wales.

Newyddion 9 has showed a sharper, bolder agenda

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

On Remembrance Sunday, Rhyfel DT Davies: Heb Ryddid Heb Ddim,
presented the moving story of a former prisoner of war from
Dryslwyn, Carmarthenshire, following his pilgrimage to Austria
for the first time since his escape from the country 70 years ago.
Later in November, as part of a week of programming about
addiction, we broadcast Gadael y Gwter: Stori John Stevenson where
the former BBC Wales parliamentary correspondent talked
about his ‘lost decade’ due to alcoholism and took us back to thestreets where he lived rough.
Along with S4C, we worked in closer partnership with the
National Eisteddfod of Wales at their annual festival in Denbighwhich brought a richer cultural offering to our daily programmes
from the event.

Y Clwb Rygbi offers comprehensive coverage of the Pro 12
and Welsh Internationals

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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Service performance

BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio Wales produced another strong performance withan average of 468,000 people listening every week.
It has also enjoyed encouraging audience growth in north Wales
as a result of additional investment in programming and output
right across Wales. The year also saw the station continue its
process of renewal with Eleri Sion and Wynne Evans joining the
weekday line-up in October.
Eleri Sion focused on entertainment and culture every Monday
to Thursday afternoons while, on Fridays, Wynne Evans’s Big Welsh
Weekend discussed events across the nation. With two footballsides in the Premier League and Welsh international rugby on
the crest of a wave, August 2013 saw a re-launch of sports
programmes on the station. We introduced a new week-night
edition of Radio Wales Sport to provide more quality journalismon the country’s most popular and minority sports, and a new
Saturday football phone-in, Call Rob Phillips.
The new programmes have helped audiences make sense of
a number of major stories – from the sackings of both the
managers of Cardiff City and Swansea City to the acrimonious
dispute in Welsh rugby. They’ve also enabled us to provide
in-depth coverage of preparations for the CommonwealthGames, as well as live commentary of the national women’sfootball team for the first time.

The Radio Academy award winning Here Be Dragons

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

We continued to build on the station’s growing reputation for
nurturing new Welsh comedy talent. Three new series werecommissioned for Friday nights: a new comedy format show
Come the Revolution, a return of cult comedy character Siadwel,and Here Be Dragons, a sketch show from Matt Lucas’s stable(winning a Radio Academy Award.)
Radio Wales provided extensive support of contemporary music
made in Wales through weekend specialist programmes, regular
daytime exposure through our ‘Artist of the Week’ feature, andcoverage of major music events (including Green Man, Festival
No.6 and the WOMEX world music festival). We also unveiled
further support for new musicians in Wales through the ‘Horizons/
Gorwelion’ partnership with BBC Radio Cymru and the Arts
Council of Wales.
In drama, we recorded a new version of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s
Christmas in Wales, read by actor Matthew Rhys, and Monty
Python’s Terry Jones was joined by a host of stars to read his
Christmas Fairy Tales.
In the countdown to the Scottish independence referendum,
we delivered an insightful season on Wales’s relationship withthe other countries in the UK. Good Morning Wales, Morning Calland Jason Mohammad challenged misconceptions about the
Welsh view on the English, and also provided opportunities forpeople to explore the implications of a yes or no vote in Scotland.
Our news programmes also shone a light on drug abuse in Walesand the state of the nation’s education system.

The new presenting line-up on Radio Wales07

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Service performance

BBC Radio Cymru
Last year saw the re-launch of BBC Radio Cymru’s weekdayschedule in response to ‘Sgwrs’ – a major public consultation
with the audience.
The new station sound is energetic, accessible and engaging.
Following a period of decline in reach and share – coupledwith the music crisis that hit the station last year – the last
12 months have seen the station recovering lost ground(with weekly reach up 13% year-on-year), and building its
impact online (up 20% year-on-year).
Dylan Jones took over the morning programme, before handing
over to Shan Cothi who offered chat, culture and a wide rangeof music. A new strand of provocative debate programmes has
also been introduced at midday, followed by half-hour features
and the Taro’r Post phone in with Garry Owen. Garry and his teamplan to be on the road regularly and took a week-long tour ofWales during the very first week of the new schedule.
The sound changes markedly in the afternoons with DJ Andrew‘Tommo’ Thomas bringing his unique and loud sound to Radio
Cymru from Monday to Thursday. Tudur Owen and his teamcontinued to take to the airwaves on Friday afternoons, working
in parallel with Tommo who hit the road to persuade those
who might have switched off from Radio Cymru that the station
has something to offer.

Tommo brings his unique and loud sound to Radio Cymru

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

We broadcast daily programmes from Swansea, Cardiff,
Bangor and Carmarthen and have worked hard to ensure
the voice of north east is also heard. It’s vital that our stationcommitment to be ‘Llais Cymru/the Voice of Wales’ is real anddeserved. ‘Cais am Lais’ – our campaign to find a fresh, newvoice to add to the C2 team – unearthed 21-year-old Guto Rhun.
He’s been broadcasting twice a week and has demonstrated thevalue of the talent-spotting undertaken by the station’s schools’
outreach team.
We have a reputation for putting Welsh arts and culture at theheart of everything we do. And we’ll continue to build on that– playing host every month to a poet-in-residence who’ll listen
and respond when they’re inspired, or perhaps riled, by what they
hear. There were some strong plays and docu-dramas broadcast
this year, including Matthew Rhys narrating a poignant playmarking the centenary of the Senghenydd mining disaster.
We continued to reflect what’s happening in the Welsh musicscene in our daily and specialist music programmes. The WOMEX
world music festival’s visit to Cardiff was a highlight, with ourinternational sessions from the BBC Grace Williams Studio breaking
new ground. The ‘Brwydr y Bandiau’ competition for young bands
continued to create an impact and we unveiled plans to further
support new musicians in Wales through the ‘Gorwelion/Horizons’partnership with BBC Radio Wales and the Arts Council of Wales.
For us the sporting highlight of the year was the Lions tour toAustralia. The hard work by the team down under and in Wales,
paid off with tremendous interest in our coverage both on theradio and on our website.

The Radio Cymru sessions at the BBC Grace Williams Studio during WOMEX

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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Service performance

Interactive
In 2013/14 we saw rapid growth in usage of both mobile devices
and social media. On average, 3.7 million unique browsers accessed
our interactive services each week across PCs, mobiles, tabletsand smart TVs – up by a third on the previous year.

Users of our interactive Welsh language services have also
increased to 40,000 unique browsers each week – and we are on
track to reach our target of 50,000 by next year. Our new service,
BBC Cymru Fyw, is also now available across all devices – and theBBC’s first Welsh language app will launch over the summer.

In addition, BBC Wales’s social media accounts now have morethan 300,000 followers, providing a new opportunity foraudiences to interact with programme makers and presenters.
The growth has been driven by a major change in interactive
consumption with mobile and tablet devices enjoying stellar
growth while PC usage stagnates.

For younger audiences, Bitesize content was produced in bothlanguages – ranging from 24 films for GCSE Geography throughto GCSE Drama produced jointly with National Theatre Wales.
And the power of digital services to bring together a range ofbroadcast output in one place was seen with the launch of a
new digital hub for the BBC’s Dylan Thomas season.

News and sport services continue to drive most traffic with major
stories ranging from the Lions’ triumph in Australia to difficult
Premiership seasons for Cardiff City and Swansea City, throughto the winter storms and the trial of Ian Watkins. In addition, thelatest generation of BBC iPlayer provides an exciting new routefor users to access BBC Wales output. Later in 2014, S4C will
also join the on-demand service – bringing all Welsh language
programming across radio and TV under one roof.

BBC Wales was also at the forefront of the development of
an innovative new content format known as ‘iWonder guides’.
Each guide posed a question or challenge, followed by video andtext along with an interactive activity. Guides produced included
a Welsh language learning challenge: “Could you learn to sing Calon
Lân in 30 minutes?” through to the more editorially challenging storyof how World War One led to the development of plastic surgery.

The power of social media was best demonstrated by themuch anticipated third series of Sherlock and the Doctor Who
50th anniversary episode. A live Twitter event after the series
finale of Sherlock, which gave viewers the opportunity to quizcreators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, trended globally with
377,000 tweets in an hour. The Doctor Who 50th episode broke
all BBC iPlayer records and the announcement of Peter Capaldi
as the new Doctor was a major international story with 542,000
tweets that night.

BBC Wales’s social media accounts now have more than 300,000 followers

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

The World War One iWonder guide on plastic surgery

09Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Service performance

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales
Under new Director, Michael Garvey, the BBC National
Orchestra and Chorus of Wales continues to fulfil a specialrole as both a broadcast orchestra and the national symphonyorchestra for Wales having performed live to tens of thousandsof people across the country. Its work is supported by both the
BBC and the Arts Council of Wales. The Orchestra continues
to be acclaimed not only for the quality and breadth of its
performances, but also for its important outreach work with
communities across Wales.
Led by Principal Conductor Thomas Søndergård, the Orchestra
represented Wales on six occasions at the 2013 BBC Proms.
Particular acclaim came for the Doctor Who Prom as well as
Søndergård’s debut performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony
No 11. We also continued to work alongside the BBC Proms in
the Park team as the resident orchestra.
Our Americana concert series – which featured works by
20th century American classical composers such as Copland,
Bernstein and Gershwin – was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3
and broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today,
which airs on more than 260 public radio stations in the US,reaching more than 1.3 million weekly listeners.
The Orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s 9th Symphony inFebruary 2014 was an artistic highlight of the year, receiving
considerable praise and critical acclaim. And during our February
tour of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Wrexham and Llandudno, we
continued to work with exciting performers such as conductor
Nicholas Collon and young British violinists Callum Smart andChloë Hanslip who were well received by the audience.

Family Night concerts in both Cardiff and Haverfordwest werea first for the Orchestra and featured videos of BBC musicians
introducing the performing repertoire. This year was particularly
significant for the BBC National Chorus of Wales who celebrated
their 30th anniversary – with performances including Fauré’s
Requiem, Christmas Celebrations and the BBC Wales Carol
Service, as well as the quintessential Welsh event that is ourannual St. David’s Day concert. The festivities were enhancedwith a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance for therecording of ‘Parry: Works for Chorus and Orchestra’, featuring
a foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales.
Our Education and Community Outreach team continued todeliver outstanding work, and received a Signature Award
nomination for its project work with deaf, deafened and hard ofhearing groups. In collaboration with the National Deaf Children’sSociety we conducted music workshops for deaf children andtheir families at Galeri, Caernarfon. Musicians from the Orchestra
also returned to Corwen in north Wales for a series of music
sessions at local primary schools and a care home.
Our year of education and outreach activity culminated with
Composition: Wales – a project which provides a platform forcomposers to write for a full symphony orchestra and haveinvaluable feedback about their work from the musicians. Our
resident composers are part of our drive to continue to foster
new Welsh talent.
The Orchestra also strengthened its partnership with
programme-makers in the BBC – and soundtracks wererecorded for programmes such as Doctor Who, Hidden Kingdoms
and The Crimson Field. Outside the BBC, advice and support
comes from the Arts Council of Wales, the Association of British
Orchestras and the Welsh Government.

Thomas Søndergård and the BBC National Orchestera of Wales at the BBC Proms

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Looking ahead
Rhodri Talfan Davies
The BBC enjoys an anniversary. And when you’ve been aroundfor the best part of a century, they come thick and fast. Last year
it was Doctor Who’s 50th and this year BBC Wales reached its
own half-century.

That we continue to attract record audiences is a remarkable
creative achievement. But budget constraints inevitably meanthat there are some aspects of national life in Wales that are notbeing sufficiently captured by the BBC’s own television services.

At one level, the creation of BBC Wales simply answered atechnical problem. Until that point, in 1964, broadcasts on what
we now know as BBC One Wales were shared between Walesand the west of England.

In the short term, we are working to mitigate these effects
through co-commissioning with BBC network colleagues andS4C (Hinterland, A Poet in New York and Indian Doctor are all fruitsof this approach). We are also focusing on fewer, bigger seasonsof programming for BBC One Wales (Live Longer Wales and the
Dylan Thomas season have both shown the impact that can begenerated by landmark moments).

But the cultural significance of that moment was profound.
The launch of BBC Wales at last gave a nation the ability to seeitself and to speak to itself on its own terms, about its own affairs
and to do so in both its languages.
Wales – for the first time – had its own embryonic public space,its own national stage on the most powerful medium of them all.
In a very real sense, BBC Wales would help bring Wales together
in a way that no amount of road improvement on the A470 could
ever achieve.
As we chart a course for the next 50 years, that sense of history
and heritage is all around us. But it is, to be frank, the challenges
that lie ahead that now matter most.
Reflecting Wales
These annual reviews have rightly celebrated BBC Wales’s
enormous strides in network production over past years. But it
is important to also acknowledge here the significant challenges
that our local English language services for Wales have faced overthe same period.
Investment in English language programming from and for Wales
has been in decline for almost a decade. The reduction in ITVWales’s contribution has played a big part in this – but the BBC’s
output has also been eroded.

Peter Capaldi becomes the twelfth Doctor

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

In the mid-term, the BBC’s Director General made clear in a recent
speech in Cardiff that there are no easy solutions. The recent
proposal to close BBC Three as a broadcast channel and move it
online tells you something about the hard financial choices that wecurrently face. But looking ahead, Tony Hall was surely right to saythat we will need to think hard about how we can strengthen our
support for national and regional self-expression as we prepare
our case for a new Royal Charter.
A Diverse Wales
BBC Wales’s 50th year promises a real kaleidoscope of sport, culture,
drama, commemoration and political history-making. Just takeyour pick from a Commonwealth Games, the World War One
and Dylan Thomas centenaries, the arrival of a new Doctor and,last but by no means least, the future of the UK being decided ina Scottish independence referendum.
Each, of course, will test our programme-makers in different ways.
But my hunch is that the biggest challenge of all facing BBC Walesin the months and years ahead is to keep pace with a Wales thatis changing perceptibly all around us.

Gabrielle Murphy performing on the BBC/Arts Council Wales
Horizons Stage at the Dinefwr Literature Festival

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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Looking ahead
Socially, politically, culturally, and, of course, digitally, Wales has
never been such a diverse place. So our job must be to reflect
and explore contemporary Wales as it really is today – not just
how it might once have been, or how others might want it to be.
That, of course, requires bags of imagination, relentless curiosity,
bravery and a preparedness to discard any rose-tinted spectacles.
Over recent months, I believe BBC Wales has made major strides
in capturing the realities of Wales. Hinterland, The Country Midwives
and The Hill Farm all captured authentically a bilingual Wales thathas too often in the past been missing from our screens. And The
Call Centre on BBC Three provided an entertaining but important
insight into young lives and concerns in contemporary Wales.
A Digital Wales
For more than a decade, there has been much excited talk abouta digital revolution. But in the last couple of years, the speed ofchange has accelerated markedly and BBC Wales must respondwith imagination and agility.
As you will have seen in this review, we have seen rapid growthin the usage of our services on mobiles and tablets, and social
media has become increasingly central both in news delivery
and audience interaction.
In anticipating this change, we have made great strides inincreasing the impact of our Welsh language interactive services
and we remain on course to hit our target of 50,000 uniquebrowsers each week by 2015.

An Open BBC
The BBC belongs to the public. They own it, they love it, and they
expect only the best from it. Every day we have to show we areworthy of that commitment.
Of course, that means delivering programmes and services ofreal quality and distinctiveness. But it means more than that too:
it means being open and honest about the challenges we face andaccountable for the decisions we take, and reaching out to workwith other organisations across Wales that share our mission to
inform, educate or to entertain.
Last year, for example, BBC Radio Cymru was faced with myriad
challenges. Audiences were declining and, through no fault of its
own, it faced a music boycott that disrupted its schedule for weeks.
Our response was to launch the biggest public consultation everundertaken on the station’s future. ‘Sgwrs’ produced more than
1,000 responses and has helped the team develop a new andexciting vision for the station. It was the right thing to do and I
believe it has helped reconnect the station to its audience.
Over the past year, we have also worked hard at forging deeper
partnerships with organisations that share our values and ambitions.
The success of Hinterland was a big milestone in our relationshipwith S4C but there is much more to come, including S4C’s arrival
on BBC iPlayer later this year.

Our Public Value Partnership with Arts Council Wales has also
borne fruit with the new ‘Horizons’ scheme already helping newartists across Wales to develop their music careers. Over the
But this is only part of the story. While our digital news andnext year, we also look forward to a new broadcast partnership
sport services are highly valued, we believe we need to up thewith the Hay Festival and working with organisations right acrossante and establish these services, over time, as the bedrock of ourthe creative sector to maximise the impact of our plans tonews service for Wales. Over the next 12 months, we will assess
develop a new BBC Wales broadcast centre in Cardiff.
the best ways of achieving this – and how we can strike thenecessary balance between our flagship radio and television news
programming and the needs of mobile, social news consumers.

The Dylan Thomas season will seek to capture the essence of the poet during the centenary of his birthManagement Review 2013/14 – Wales

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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Key priorities for next year
Work with network colleagues to improve the representationof Wales on the BBC’s UK television channels.
Deliver an outstanding season of programming to mark theanniversary of Dylan Thomas’s birth.
Provide in-depth coverage of the Scottish independence
referendum and its potential impact on Wales and the UK.
Move faster online – strengthening our delivery on mobile
devices and provide a more personalised service for users.
Progress plans to modernise BBC Wales’s technology andestate as part of the BBC’s wider property strategy.

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

Contacts
If you have a question, comment or complaint about BBC Wales
programmes or services, or any other aspect of the BBC’s work,
please contact our Audience Services unit.
All feedback is carefully registered and regularly distributed toeditorial teams and management.
Telephone: 03703 500 700
Lines open weekdays 9.30am–7.30pm (except bank holidays).
Calls to the 0370 UK-wide rate are charged at no more than
01/02 geographic numbers. Calls may be recorded for training.
Website: www.bbc.co.uk/wales/info
Write to:Audience Services
BBC Cymru Wales
Bangor
LL57 2BY
Complaints: for more information about the BBC’s complaints
process and to submit a complaint online please visit
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

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Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

The management teamRhodri Talfan Davies
Director BBC Wales

Clare Hudson
Head of Productions

Gareth Powell
Chief Operating Officer

Adrian Davies
Head of English Language Programmes
and Services

Sian Gwynedd
Head of Welsh Language Programmes
and Services

Mark O’Callaghan
Head of News and Current Affairs

Richard Thomas
Head of Marketing, Communications& Audiences

Management Review 2013/14 – Wales

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