The future of S4C

An announcement is expected on Wednesday that the BBC is to take over funding for Welsh-language channel S4C.

BBC News

The BBC licence fee is to be frozen at the current level of £145.50 for the next six years, a 16% cut in real terms... Among the extra commitments the BBC has signed up to are to fund the World Service and Welsh-language broadcaster S4C out of the licence fee from 2015.

The Guardian

Background
The UK's new Government is carrying out one of the most significant "funding review" in modern times. Faced with debts that are projected to run into the hundreds of billions b the end of their first term (2014-15), it is cutting budgets left, right and centre to reduce our national dependence on money we simply don't have.

Areas seen as politically-sensitive -- hospitals and schools specifically -- have been ring-fenced, but the scope of the Government's cuts should not be underestimated: the armed forces, prison service, and justice system all face massive belt-tightening exercises over the coming months. In the military, 50,000 job losses were announced today alone.

No money, mo' problems
With a nigh-on guaranteed income of £3.45 billion a year¹, funded directly by the television-watching public, the BBC now finds itself in the sights of a Government looking for easy targets. The relationship between the BBC and the Conservatives has never been particularly cosy: it will be tested like never before tomorrow, when Chancellor George Osbourne is expected to hand the BBC responsibility for three major projects previously paid for from direct taxation:

1. The BBC World Service. Paid for from the Foreign Office's budget until now, the World Service provides radio, internet and television services across the world. It is extremely well-respected and revered by those to whom it provides a vital service: the propagation of news in regions where media plurality is scarce (or forbidden).
   
2. BBC Monitoring. The eyes and ears of the Government, Monitoring watches and listens to broadcasts from nations and governments around the world, gathering vast amounts of "open source intelligence". Funded, until now, by a variety of Government departments.
   
3. S4C. Funded directly by Government until now (£100million a year), the Welsh-language broadcaster was established in 1982 under Margaret Thatcher's (Conservative) government as an "investment in social harmony"². It is undergoing tumultuous change: it is now facing the biggest crisis of it's history.

The problems facing S4C are thus:

• S4C broadcasts exclusively in Welsh. There are an estimated 611,000 Welsh-speakers in Wales. For any commercial broadcaster, this is already a minuscule "target audience".
  
• S4C's sponsors - the companies that pay for advertising on the channel - recognise there is little if any money to be made from Welsh. I watch the channel only occasionally, but the only ads I have seen in Cymraeg are those from Government departments.
  
• Of the 611,000, only a tiny proportion are watching some of S4C's programming. Cyw, the station's children's programming strand is critically-acclaimed and (apparently) very popular with the kids... but their viewing habits aren't recorded and don't contribute to viewing figures. Moreover, pre-schoolers don't have a lot of spending power.
  
• If you believe the hype, linear television is dying. S4C has three television channels, one of which broadcasts part-time during the day, one that carries the same shows in HD, and the other that carries coverage of the Welsh Assembly. Not exactly water-cooler television.
  
• A huge rift has developed between the station's management and the "executive" designed to oversee it. This has led to two high-profile resignations in as many months. The ship is listing, and the captain has just nicked-off in a lifeboat.

This makes grim reading. Last month, the Government told it to cut its budget by 40%. Now, it plans to cut it's funding to precisely zero and hand responsibility to fund the channel over to a soft target cash-cow the BBC.

To me, this measure doesn't go far enough.

BBC SC?
The BBC should be given complete control over S4C, which should cease as a commercial service with immediate effect.

Why? Because it would fit perfectly with the Beeb's existing set-up. It already provides S4C with programming 'free of charge' - news, soaps, documentaries, sport... the list goes on. Wales has a thriving independent production community - this can only benefit from a Welsh television channel with a secured future.

Away from TV, BBC Radio Cymru would be an ideal partner for the television channel. It would also be complemented by an improved online presence, access to the iPlayer, YouView, SeeSaw, bbc.co.uk...

There's more: the S4C Executive would be replaced by the BBC Trust: look, Mr Cameron! I've just scrapped a Quango!

The BBC already operates BBC Alba, a Gaelic service (of which there are supposed to be 58,652 speakers in Scotland) comprising a television channel, radio station and website (for what that's worth). It has developed a local service on limited funds from scratch. With the strong foundations laid down by S4C, it can do so much more in Wales.

This move will hit the BBC, but there are plenty of places it can trim fat -- and the Government knows that all too well. It wouldn't have entrusted the future of an entire language to the Corporation, otherwise.

¹ - 2009-10 figures
² - The Guardian

Don't listen to me.

Election 2010 I have absolutely no right to tell you what to do. I have no right to tell you what to think. I certainly have no right to tell you what to believe. Nothing – not the place where you were born, or to whom; nor where you live and what colour your skin is (or your eyes are); not whether you are a man or a woman, an atheist or a Christian (or a Buddhist or a Nazi) nor whether you prefer coffee to tea or stripes to spots – nothing on this Earth gives me the right to force my own personal views onto anyone else.

Which is why I beg this of you: please, please, please, if you are eligible to vote in Thursday's General Election, go and vote. The decision you make will be yours, your voice will be heard, and it will make a difference.

Sadly, previous elections have been dominated by the phrase "it won't make a difference". Well this time around, things are different. Never before have our ballot papers been so important. Never before has the power of your "cross" been so strong. Never before has each and every one of us had the chance to bring about such real and radical change in the British political system. Because that's what we're voting for: change.

This year, regardless of individual political views may be, we have the opportunity to revolutionise politics. We have the power to put an end to "tactical" voting. We have the power to put an end to the "two-party" system. We have the power to put an end to misrepresentation of the people.

But to do so, we must work together.

In every election, hundreds of thousands of votes have no impact whatsoever on the make-up of parliament, nor on the government, nor on the way this country is run. Unless your vote is for the winning candidate in your constituency, it is worthless. The "first-past-the-post" (fptp) system has favoured the Conservatives and Labour for to long: it has entrenched within each party the expectation of victory and given rise to a situation where only a tiny percentage of the population must be kept happy in order to secure power. This must end.

Here comes the politics bit.

The Conservatives must not be allowed to win this election. Their plans for "electoral reform" are designed to strengthen their own position, and further disenfranchise even greater swathes of the United Kingdom. Regardless of their other policies, I believe we have a collective responsibility to ensure that these reforms are never put into practice. How do we do that? Simple: vote for someone else!

The Liberal Democrats have been advocating the need for electoral reform for years and years, mainly because they have been the biggest victim of fptp. A vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for true reform. But there's a problem. The Lib Dems will not win enough seats to govern outright. They will need to form a coalition with the (next-)biggest party, and who that will be will determine the future of this country not just for the next five years, but for the next five-hundred years.

The Lib Dems need Labour just as much as Labour (who look to be doomed to a humiliating third place) need them. Without an outright majority, and without this coalition, neither can protect us from the Great Leap Backwards that the Conservatives propose.

So please consider very carefully who you will vote for on Thursday. I hope it will be for the Liberal Democrats, or, in areas where they stand a better chance of defeating the Tories, Labour. I hope that supporters of the minority parties will recognise that they too must be prepared to switch their allegiances, however temporarily, for the greater good (and for the prospect of future success far beyond the most optimistic "best-case scenarios" of which they can only dream of today). But more importantly of all, despite everything I have just written, I hope it will be for whoever you think is right.

Hip to be Square

My very first memory of attending a football match, like so many others', contains virtually no details about the goals, nor the scoreline, nor the players, nor even who we were playing. These details, these statistics, these facts have been pushed aside and replaced by the sense of awe, the feeling of wonderment, the overpowering synæsthesia of multi-coloured scarves and burger-van smells.

For my very first game, my dad took me to the Watling Street ground. It was (still is) three streets away from our house, but I was spared the arduous five minute walk and treated to being carried on his shoulders instead. This is where my memory begins:

As we turned onto Watling Street, I was met with an incredible sight. Hundreds of people were walking down the pavements, dozens more weaving in-between the passing buses and cars. From every side road, from every footpath, from every gap in the fence, people formed a human river, flowing steadily towards the turnstiles. I had never seen anything like it.

The queue at the gates heightened my anticipation, and once through, the scene before me was astonishing. From the top of the famous grass bank, the pitch looked a mile long; the people behind the goal seemed so distant it was as though they had barely travelled from their home town to be there.

To my left, the main stand looked capable of holding ten thousand people. It's roof was so high, it looked able to shield the entire pitch from the wind and the rain. The minutes went past, and still the flow of people continued; all around me, people streamed past, eager to reach "their spot".

At kick-off, the atmosphere changed completely. It seemed to me at that moment that every brick, every plank, every concrete block had been carefully positioned to divert your attention towards the pitch; and, on the sound of a whistle, that's precisely what happened. The focus of everyone's attention for the next 45 minutes was the game – everyone, it seemed, except me, who still couldn't help but look. Look at the people! Look at their faces! Look at this place! Look at this ramshackle Cathedral.

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

Today, you'll find houses where the Watling Street ground once stood. It wouldn't be long after my first visit to that ground that it would have to be sold. Without it, it was impossible to continue. The football club was dead, but the spirit and the passion it stirred in hundreds of the fans could not be extinguished so easily.

· · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

The story of how an intrepid band of supporters rescued my club is one that I need to dedicate some time to in order to tell. I cannot do it justice in a couple of paragraphs. In the later years, I played the smallest of parts in the story, too. Throughout, the aim was simple and clear. Our club did not deserve to be homeless. Our club did not deserve to be languishing in lower-non-league obscurity. Our club and our town deserved better.

I have written before about the overwhelmingly positive impact that having our own stadium has had on the club and the wider community. Determination and volunteer work can only get you so far. Football today is a business, and you need stronger assets than good intentions to progress. Princes Park has been the springboard to our recent success.

That success was duly rewarded last weekend. Dartford won the Isthmian Premier League title and automatic promotion to the Conference South (aka Blue Square South). It is a fantastic achievement for all concerned, and we must be sure to make the most of every single new opportunity it presents. Next season will be tough, but if there's one club that knows a thing or two about overcoming adversity, it is surely the Dartford Football Club.

Pride comes in two colours: black and white.

Sleep, wave theory, and overspringshandling

I don't have a great deal to write about this week. This is no reflection on the sort of week I've had, because it's been a good one, but this is due to the fact that I've spent much of it sleeping/vegetating in bed/generally lounging around. Which is all well and good, but doesn't make for great anecdotes.

• The Danish have a fantastic word for procrastination: overspringshandling (props to @paulie for bringing this to my attention), made all the more fantastic I feel by the addition of Newspeak: doubleplusoverspringshandling has a certain ring to it, no?

• You know how when you wake up the morning after going to a gig or to a club your ears are ringing? Well I thought that it was an inevitable consequence of listening to very loud music for hours on end. Inevitable no more! Because, thanks to the wonders of science, there is a solution!

If you sing loudly to the music, the (good) sound waves you produce will deflect the (bad) sound waves coming from the sound system. Et voilà! Your ears are protected!

And if you think that sounds like total rubbish, try and explain the totally distortion-free hearing you enjoy the next morning.

• I've been searching high and low for some new trainers for ages. I've seen plenty (they're not exactly hard to come by), but I've been searching for a fairly specific set. Is it too much to ask for a nice-looking pair of white, slip-on trainers? I don't think so, but apparently the entire UK shoe industry disagrees. There are about a dozen shoe shops* in Sheffield, and none of them had anything I liked.

*This includes JD and Foot Locker, despite the fact that they no longer appear to sell shoes, but concentrate exclusively on massive boots, hoodies and tracksuits in primary colours (and possibly also drugs) to wannabe gangsters/massive chavs.

Random of the week

The massive earthquake in Chile earlier this year was so powerful it shook the Earth off it's axis and shortened the length of that day by 1.26 millionths of a second.

99 problems but the 6 ain't one

Less than two weeks after a surprisingly positive review into digital radio station 6 Music, the BBC is considering scrapping the network.

This is not only an extremely short-sighted, headline-grabbing decision designed to appease political and commercial opponents, but also directly contravenes the Corporation's mandate.

In 1922, Lord Reith declared the BBC's mission in elegant terms. "The BBC is here to inform, educate and entertain, to enrich people's lives." Eighty years later, I fell in love with a radio station that followed these guidelines to the letter.

Jude Rogers, The Guardian

Fans of the station – who, although "few in number", certainly work hard to ensure their voices are heard – have already put forward extremely eloquent and passionate arguments for keeping, protecting and investing more in the station. There is little that I can add to the words of Phill Jupitus, Andrew Collins, Alistair Harper et al.

Far from being an example of what's wrong with the Beeb, 6 Music is a beautiful example of the BBC at its best.

Richard Bacon

The facts are clear: the listenership is (comparatively) small, but devoted. Unlike Radio 1, there are no commercial broadcasters fighting for the 6 Music audience – and certainly none capable of replicating the quality, range and depth of output. Coupled with the role that 6 Music plays in promoting new music, unsigned acts and niche genres, it is the very model of Public Service Broadcasting:

6 Music is a crucial platform for new music and has been instrumental in furthering careers of countless acts... As well as helping bands find an audience, that audience is one that is passionate about music. [It] is vital.

Lisa Matthews, manager, Welsh Music Foundation

6 Music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame.

David Bowie

Let's look at some numbers:





Subscription to Last.fm costs £36.00 a year; Spotify costs £119.88 a year. Based on these figures, I'd say that 6 Music is a pretty good deal.

Now let's have a look at some other national networks:





These figures are back-of-an-envelope calculations (sources listed below), but they give a rough indication of how much the Beeb is spending. It's staggering that the Asian Network is also facing the axe (especially as, if nothing else, it's role as Public Service Broadcaster to the 2.4million Asians living in Britain is far greater than 6 Music's service to ardent music fans).

Forget about bringing people together within their own living rooms – radio brings nations together! And if we have that ability, do we really want to waste it by playing (the admittedly quite enjoyable) Cast of Glee? No. We want to champion new music, refresh our memories with the favourite bands we’ve long forgotten, and generally widen the cultural boundaries of everyone at the other end of that magical digital squiggle of zeroes and ones.

Stephen Thomas, For Folks Sake


Over 71,000 people have joined the Save BBC 6 Music Facebook group. I hope you will feel compelled to do the same.

Notes
Annual cost
Radio 2 - actual figures for 2008-09, taken from BBC Trust report. Programming costs were £26.7million (music licensing fees account for the rest); 6 Music - station budget for 2008-09; Radio 3 - taken from here (July 2009); Radio 4 - taken from here (2005-06); Asian Network - taken from here (April 2008); Radio 1 - taken from here (April 2008).

Adult listeners per week
Radio 2 and 6 Music - figures from BBC Trust report; Radio 3, Radio 4, Asian Network, Radio 1 - RAJAR quarterly listening figures (October - December 2009).

Cost per listener, licence fee payer
Per year. Quick maths based on the above figures and the numbers quoted in the BBC Trust report. Numbers rounded to the nearest penny, but some margin for error to be expected as I've used the figures in the BBC Trust report to work out the formulas.

Amendments
This article has been updated twice since being posted. Once for spelling and grammar; I've also changed the figures quoted for Last.fm and Spotify from monthly to yearly prices for easier comparison.

This machine kills time

On Thursday night I went to the Sheffield Showroom to see a screening of Alan Miles' documentary, Breaking Rocks. It was the first date in a mini-tour of Britain for the film, which follows the progress of Jail Guitar Doors, an initiative to help rehabilitate prisoners through music.

Founded by Billy Bragg in 2007, the scheme was inspired by Malcolm Dudley, a counsellor who worked at Guys Marsh prison. Using some borrowed guitars, he had started a small but significant music class to help inmates express themselves and build confidence: the first steps towards true rehabilitation.

This was just the beginning, and the film documents how JGD has grown from just six guitars into a programme grew into an international organisation in only a few years. Bragg's contribution is invaluable to it's success, and his personal involvement in the project extends far beyond being the "public face"; ultimately though, it's the prisoners who are the stars.

Two of the inmates featured in the film have served their sentences, and were present at the screening (along with Miles, Bragg and Reverend And The Makers' John McClure). Both – Leon Fender-Walker and Jonny Neesom – are extremely talented individuals and their performances on the big screen and live after the showing provided all the evidence you could need as to the worthiness of the venture.

Time constraints meant we could only have a couple of songs from each of the guests. Walker [My Space], combines raw talent with infectious energy and worked the crowd like a pro. His music follows in the footsteps of the Arctic Monkeys and Jamie T that disguises sharp, often scathing, social commentary behind the neon façades of "everyday" life in Britain. I defy you to listen to Annabella and not be humming the tune within minutes.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Neeson [My Space] is the self-styled "angry little white boy". If he does have any lyrics sheets at home (he certainly didn't need them on stage), they must be written in venom. Tracks like Fuck Justice and Gray Walls are incredibly powerful: each individual word pins you to your seat like a nail, yet they're delivered so carefully that they flow like poetry. Amazing.

Achievements unlocked: (none)

I set myself some New Year's Resolutions (plural) this year. Nothing special in that, most people do. I haven't started (let alone completed) any of them; again, I suspect, like most people. The explanation for this is pretty simple: I'm just too lazy to have many enough effort, yet it feels so incredibly frustrating still.

Reason being, I hate hypocrites. I don't like people who break promises. I don't like people who let me down. Hence, I don't like myself when I don't deliver. It's annoying when the landlord doesn't provide us with a meter reading; it's frustrating when client's don't give you all the information you need; but, for me, it's absolutely gutting when it's me who's ballsed-up.

Fortunately, resolutions are pretty arbitrary: it doesn't matter if you start them in January or June; you don't have to wait until December 31 before thinking-up a new one. So maybe I will put some effort in. And maybe I'll start whenever I like. And maybe I won't worry about them so much. Maybe that should be a new resolution?

* * *

There's a lot to be said for the Saturday morning lie-in, you know.

The vast majority of this weekend has been spent watching sport, and good sport at that. FA Cup football, 6 Nations rugby and, naturally, live text updates of the mighty Dartford FC's campaign. It was a fantastic 4-1 win over Tonbridge this week, a result that settled the nerves of fans and players alike, especially important after a run of disrupted schedules and poor performances. Our lead at the top is back to seven points, and with three games still in hand there's no need to panic just yet.

The next thing on my List Of Gadgets To Buy, I've decided (purely off the back of seeing someone else's), is a surround-sound speaker system. They're 99.9% useless, because the number of times you actually use them to watch a film with proper Dolby surround compared to the number of times you're just listening to re-runs of Scrapheap Challenge is so minimal, but – oh – they sure do look cool.

Random of the week

∞ + 1 = ∞
∞ - 1 = ∞
∞ + ∞ = ∞
∞ - ∞ = x, where -∞ &le x &le ∞