BBC Trust

A significant proportion of the students watched BBC Three with one participant speaking for many when he said that he appreciated the channel’s British comedy, adding that “it seems to be dying out on other UK channels so good to it on the BBC Three”. Other participants said they appreciated other programmes on the channel, and mentioned Family Guy, Russell Howard’s Good News, Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents, and Top Gear. There was concern at the BBC’s proposals to make it an on-line only service, with a number making the point that they usually encountered its programmes by flicking between TV channels, and that it was unlikely that they would make a special effort to seek it out online. Even though 9 out of the 15 participants said that their broadband connection was good enough to be able to watch video material, there was consensus that it “wasn’t a good watching experience online”. One participant spoke for a number of the participants, when he said “I don’t go online unless there is nothing I want to watch on the telly”.

The channel was praised for its social action programmes, with participants praising its drug awareness output, and programmes like Barely Legal Drivers. It was said that they managed to hit the sweet spot of being interesting to watch, but also communicating important messages.

A number of other TV programmes were mentioned with Countryfile  being one of them, understandably perhaps since Agriculture was a subject being studied by several of the participants at the event. The programme was appreciated for its excellent weather coverage, and for interesting stories, though some felt that it wasn’t a real reflection of agriculture or life in rural Wales. Generally, participants felt that the BBC’s output reflected a more urban perspective and some were critical of the way in which the BBC had reported on the possible transmission of TB to cattle by badgers.

A number of the students said they regularly watched S4C’s output, with Pobol y Cwm, Ffermio, Cefn Gwlad and the channel’s football and rugby coverage mentioned (though some participants said that despite preferring commentary in Welsh, they still watched the Six Nations Rugby championship on BBC channels, because it was available in HD). There was also an appreciation of the channel’s drama output with Rownd a Rownd,  35 niwrnod, Y Gwyll/Hinterland and Gwaith/Cartref mentioned favourably in this context despite the comment of one participant that nothing on S4C had matched C’mon Midffild in terms of drama comedy since that series was broadcast.

The students listened to a number of difference radio stations with Radio Cymru popular amongst more than half the participants, but they were not uncritical of it. Programmes or presenters specifically mentioned as being popular included Tudur Owen and Geraint Lloyd. The main weakness of the station, according to some of the participants, was an over-emphasis on speech during the day, and “not enough good music”. A number said that it was the accompaniment to their tractor driving activity.

Other students mentioned Radio 1 and Radio 5 Live – with the latter being primarily appreciated for its sports coverage and results programmes.  Radio 2 was also mentioned and was appreciated for its classic rock and pop music. Some students said that they listened to the station on the radio while travelling in the car, and via their TV set at home.

A high proportion of the participants accessed the BBC iPlayer to catch up on specific programmes. Most also accessed the BBC website at regular intervals with the news output being a destination for many of them. It was also said that the BBC’s Bitesize provision had been appreciated when they were at school, but that the BBC website was no longer particularly fruitful in terms of their present academic studies.

Three of the fifteen participants had heard of and used the BBC Cymru Fyw app on tablets or smartphones.

Participants were broadly positive about the BBC and its programmes, and appreciated the content provided by the Corporation