BBC Trust

On Friday, 1 April 2011 Audience Council Wales hosted an outreach event at Canolfan Gymdeithasol Talysarn to hear the views of the local licence fee payers about the BBC.

There were around 35 people present and the discussion in two of the three groups was conducted in Welsh. The gender balance was largely equal and the age range between 15 and 75.

Television

Participants mentioned a wide range of television programmes which they enjoyed. The BBC's wildlife programmes were described as the "best in the world" by one member of the group while another warmly praised anthropology programme,Human Planet, described "one of the best programmes I've ever seen". The presenter, Brian Cox, was considered first class both on this programme and others that he presented recently on astronomy.

Programmes such as Countryfile and Escape to the Country were appreciated because they occasionally portrayed Dyffryn Nantlle. On the wider matter of portrayal, some participants felt that the occasional Network portrayal of Wales used accents from south Wales and never those from the north. Programmes that did portray Wales or were made by BBC Wales for Network were appreciated with Doctor Who and Torchwood mentioned. BBC Three was the channel which seemed to attract the greatest loyalty amongst the younger participants.

BBC Wales produced programmes were also praised including the political coverage, with Dragon's Eye being considered a good programme, and praise too for the recent Snowdonia 1890 - though some felt that it had been expensive to make and that to have built a house for the purposes of the programme only to demolish it afterwards a waste of money.

There were many comments on the programmes of S4C. Looking back to past triumphs, the programme mentioned above any other was C'mon Midffild, which participants young and old considered first class, and a welcome if, in their opinion, a rare example of a programme set in north Wales using actors with a north Wales accent. Also in this category participants had enjoyed Pengelli,Talcen Caled and Tipyn o Stad.

S4C's Cyw service was considered very valuable by parents of young children. Current or recent S4C programmes enjoyed and mentioned included Jonathan,Iolo ac Indiaid Gogledd America and Rhaglen Tudur Owen. Some participants wondered whether Tudur Owen was being used to his full potential as a presenter.

Several participants complained about the level of repeats broadcast on television, both on S4C and on BBC channels.

Radio

Newly launched Real Radio was popular amongst many participants, who experienced many issues with reception for other stations. A number of participants listened to Radio Cymru, but one explained that he no longer listened to the station since the departure of Jonsi who was "easy to listen to."

Participants were appreciative of Geraint Lloyd's programme, which had improved recently and no longer played English music.

There were mixed feelings on Caryl and Daf's programme, some enjoyed it while others believed that having two presenters was too much and that they focused to too great a degree on English celebrities, which they weren't interested in. Others felt that the Radio Cymru playlist was too rigid, limited and the order of songs played each day too similar. One participant said "You can set your watch by the order of songs in the Radio Cymru playlist". While the C2 strand in the evenings was greatly appreciated, some participants felt that it would be good if new bands were given greater exposure during the day too.

Some complained that Radio Cymru lacked original content and that they relied a lot on the same people to do a number of programmes. One suggested that some kind of quiz show on the station could be entertaining. Despite this, many realised that Radio Cymru was "one station for everyone" and that it couldn't please everyone all the time.

Reggie Yeats was the favourite Radio 1 presenter for some participants but many were also fond of Chris Moyles in the mornings because he played contemporary music, the discussions were timely, and the programme was fun. Several said that they had enjoyed Chris Moyles' record breaking 52 hour broadcast in aid of Comic Relief and had viewed some of it on TV using the red button service.

One participant asked why there were duplications of radio station, for example Radio 5 Live and Radio 5 Extra and Radio 1 and Radio 1 Xtra. They believed that this led to unnecessary costs as well as the costs for marketing those stations.

News

BBC News on all platforms was considered to be of a high quality with participants praising BBC'sNewyddion on S4C in particular. The BBC News channel was also considered a good service. There was a feeling that the results of the BBC Trust Impartiality review on coverage of the devolved nations hadn't been implemented adequately, with Radio 4 considered one of the worst culprits, failing to cover enough issues from Wales and the implicit assumption that "the country" was England when referring to issues like health. They highlighted The Today programme as a particularly poor example.

One example given by participants was a story on Network regarding the announcement that the 'morning after pill' was to be made available over the counter free of charge in Wales only. This was the first time the participants had seen a story like this on Network news that referred only to Wales.

Questions were raised about why Network reporters were sent to cover stories in Wales rather than using BBC Wales reporters - "the BBC Wales Today reporter for the Queen's recent visit to the Valley RAF base was good so why not use him for Network too?" Another commented that "BBC Wales reporters are usually better because they know the area and can pronounce the names but the ones from London don't know how to say them."

Online and on-demand

The BBC's website was considered excellent and was the first port of call for many for news, weather and sports coverage. As one participant said "I just use the internet for news -it's updated so regularly that I can choose when to watch it". Many participants regularly used the iPlayer service to catch-up on programmes they had missed at the time of broadcast. Some participants also said that they listened to some of the BBC's radio stations over the internet.

Sport

S4C's rugby coverage was praised but ambivalence regarding its football coverage (largely because of the commentators). Jonathan was considered a good programme on a sporting theme and participants considered it had improved further recently with a change in the presenting team. The liked the lively nature of the programme and the guests - but considered it important that the guests had good sporting credentials.

Football fans found it unfair that they could only watch matches by paying an expensive subscription to Sky and felt that rugby was always given precedence over football on the BBC. They sometimes failed to get local football scores because there was too much talk about rugby, even if Wales had played poorly that weekend.

Radio 5 Live was popular with some participants for the sports coverage but reception was generally poor. Were reception better then participants said they would listen to the station more often. Football match coverage was particularly appreciated on Radio 5 Live and felt that the station announced the scores of matches before the games had been shown elsewhere.

Reception

Some members of the group were unimpressed with the promotion of digital radio with one asking "Why is the BBC going ahead on a rush to get DAB when it is not available?" They also asked what would happen to the millions of FM radios if the signal was switched off. Another believed that "the BBC is being pushed to promote DAB to rescue the project." One member had bought a DAB radio and had to take it back to the shop as it didn't work in their area. Another member of the group asked what had happened to Radio 7 as they could no longer receive it.

It was felt that Radio 4 reception was poor along the north Wales coast. Some were unable to receive Radio 5 Live at all and the Radio Wales signal was "very crackly". Some had to use their Sky televisions in order to listen to the radio and in some cases it was the only way of doing so, particularly with Radio 5 Live. They explained that even though they liked listening to the station, the reception is patchy.

Participants believed they were promised wonderful reception with the TV digital switchover but that the reality was that their reception was worse. When using Freesat, "the picture suddenly stops and then starts again later." There were also comments that participants "couldn't get half the Freeview channels they were meant to."

There was disappointment that participants were unable to access Wales output on BBC HD services, "I watch HD and I like news and I can't get Wales Today and it's a pain...if you're going to have HD, do it properly."

General

Background music was a significant issue for some participants with some describing it as "a real problem".

Executive pay was also an issue raised by participants, particularly the salary of the BBC Director General, which was considered excessive - especially when compared to the salary of the UK Prime Minster.

Participants were however genuinely happy to pay the Licence Fee, considering it excellent value for money, and suggesting that the BBC should "boast more about its offering". Some considered the Licence Fee worth paying just so as to avoid advertising.

Sky was considered an expensive means of accessing a TV service and some participants argued that companies such as Sky had their own agenda and that their production standards were inferior to those of the BBC, as well as importing most of programmes and not producing original content of their own.