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MINUTES OF AUDIENCE COUNCIL WALES MEETING Held on Friday 6 March 2015, BBC Broadcasting House, Cardiff.

Present: Elan Closs Stephens (Chair) Trust Member for Wales Carol Adams Rhian Connick Pam Hunt Andrew Jones Ceri Stradling

Apologies: Joni Ayn Alexander Ryan Davies Aled Jones-Griffith Ian Stevens Alun Williams Marjorie Williams In attendance from the Trust Unit: Alison Gold Head of Public Services Strategy Karl Davies Chief Adviser Wales Georgina Hodges Chief Research and Audiences Adviser Governance Coordinator and Secretary to Siôn Brynach BBC Audience Council Wales Janet Davies Departmental Assistant

From the BBC Wales Executive (agenda items 15-20): Rhodri Talfan Davies Director BBC Cymru Wales Adrian Davies Head of Content, English Siân Gwynedd Head of Content, Welsh Mark O’Callaghan Head of News and Current Affairs Rhys Evans Head of Strategy and Digital Clare Hudson Head of BBC Wales Productions (agenda item 11)

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11 DISCUSSION ON PRINCIPLES OF THE BBC CONTENT SUPPLY REVIEW

11.1 Head of BBC Wales production, Clare Hudson, informed the Council about the programming produced by BBC Wales for the BBC radio and TV networks.

11.2 The Council was reminded that the growth of Network production in Wales was sparked by the transformative impact of Doctor Who’s revival, and subsequently by the BBC’s Network Supply Review of television. It has established Wales as a major production centre and has greatly strengthened the wider creative economy in the nation.

11.3 This has included growth in the independent TV production sector that was responsible for such programmes as Merlin and Atlantis, and has led to the development of a critical mass of TV production in the Cardiff area. This contributes significantly to the economy of Wales with the Government of Wales reporting recently that 50,000 people are now employed within the creative industries sector in Wales.

11.4 In considering its advice to the Trust on its consultation on the principles of network supply, the Council expressed several concerns regarding the possible impact of the BBC Executive proposals regarding the establishment of ‘BBC Production’.

11.5 The Council made reference to the third principle upon which the Trust was consulting – “using a wide range and diversity of supply across all genres and from across the UK”. The Council considered that the Trust should reassure itself that changes in the BBC’s content supply arrangements would not undermine the BBC’s Public Purposes and not impact upon the BBC’s role in developing talented individuals, both presenters and other staff, who currently also go on to the independent sector to enrich the work of those companies and the programming they supply to the BBC

11.6 The Council believes that an additional and over-riding principle should be added which is that the BBC’s content supply arrangements should: - ensure the promotion of the BBC’s Public Purposes.

12 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

12.1 There were no declarations of interest. Pam Hunt and Aled Jones-Griffith, the former attending her final meeting of the Council and the latter in absentia, were thanked for their service as Council members during the previous five years – which had been greatly appreciated, and of significant value.

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13 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING AND MATTERS ARISING

13.1 The minutes (ACWM (15) 1) of the meeting held on 6 February 2015 were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting. There were no matters arising.

14 PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION ON BBC PERFORMANCE IN WALES 2014-15, ISSUES ARISING FROM PURPOSE REMIT SURVEY AND THE COUNCIL’S AUDIENCE PRIORITIES 2015- 16

14.1 The importance of English language TV programmes for Wales, produced in Wales was the key issue for Council, based on what it had heard from audiences at a significant proportion of its outreach events and while members recognised the innovative steps being taken by BBC Wales through partnership, co-commissions and so on to maximise the resources available to it, there remained an on-going ‘cliff-edge’ situation.

14.2 The Council agreed that the decision to prioritise news and sport in the context of English language TV output from Wales for Wales was the correct one, since there was a democratic deficit in Wales, but it was nonetheless a matter of deep concern that this decision was having such a significant impact on other genres. The Council articulated the dilemma that opinion formers were better catered for than the population at large, and so were perhaps less aware than the general public of the paucity of English language TV programmes produced in Wales for Wales.

14.3 The Council agreed that the three strands it wished to explore with BBC Wales management later in the meeting were a) BBC Wales’ productions for the BBC Network, b) The portrayal of Wales on the wider BBC UK- wide network, and c) the paucity of output and funding for English language TV programmes produced in Wales for Wales.

15 BBC TRUST PURPOSE REMIT SURVEY RESULTS 2014-15

15.1 The Council was informed by the Trust’s Chief Research and Audiences Adviser of the methodology employed for conducting the research. 2276 interviews had been conducted using a mixture of on-line and face to face discussions, with 364 of these having been in Wales.

15.2 The overall impression of the BBC had remained constant in the UK overall, and had increased marginally in Wales from 7.3 to 7.7. The figures on “likelihood to miss the BBC” had also remained static, with the score for audiences in Wales higher than the average level for the UK as a whole at 85%.

15.3 Reflecting on the summary of performance, UK average scores for each Purpose, the Council expressed concern that the greatest performance gap

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was in relation to the Nations, Regions & Communities Purpose, at -12. The Council also expressed concern that 38% of the respondents had said they felt that the BBC did not offer them a lot of what they required.

15.4 Turning to the summary of the performance for each of the BBC’s Public Purposes, the Council expressed particular concern at the performance gap (-19) in relation to “representing my nation in the main UK news programmes” with around 45% of the respondents of the view that the BBC failed to do so. However, the Council welcomed the reduction in the Purpose gap in relation to “the BBC supports my minority language” amongst Welsh speakers in Wales, with 61% of those questioned of the view that it did. The Council expressed the view that while the Purpose gap remained at -15, the reduction may have arisen as a result of the launch of the Cymru Fyw app, and introduction of all S4C’s programmes on the BBC iPlayer.

15.5 The Council observed that the perception of those asked regarding the BBC’s value for money had remained consistent for the past 5 years. The Council concluded therefore that its key concerns arising from the Survey results was the lack of attention, on the whole, to Wales in the BBC’s Network news coverage, the paucity of policy comparisons across the UK’s nations, and the lack of progress in the portrayal of Wales in other genres.

16 DISCUSSION ON BBC PERFORMANCE IN WALES (NETWORK AND BBC WALES OUTPUT)

16.1 Director Wales outlined some of the successes of BBC Cymru Wales during the year under review. The AI scores remained consistently above the scores of the Network output. English language TV programming was outperforming the programmes being shown on Network – consistently 1.8% above Network share. While approval and performance scores go up, the volume of the output was becoming ever thinner. The matter of serving the nation, beyond the core news services, remained the biggest challenges faced by BBC Wales.

16.2 In relation to Network TV productions, the Council recognised that BBC Wales had increased its share of Network production yet again with those individual programmes amongst the most successful on the Network. However, it was concerned that despite being produced in Wales, they were not portraying Wales on Network. It expressed its concern that greater headway was not being made on this matter beyond the very occasional programmes such as Poet in New York and Hinterland. The Council said that time and again at its own outreach events, it heard of the hunger of audiences to see themselves reflected in TV output, both national and Network and commended the BBC Wales Executive for producing content in Wales for Wales that consistently outperformed Network output in relation to audience appreciation despite the success and popularity of Network content in Wales.

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16.3 The Council asked the BBC Wales Executive what they felt were the obstacles in relation to Network portrayal of Wales and what levers could be employed to improve the situation. The discussion focused on the Network’s receptiveness to creative ideas, particularly in drama, from Wales.

The Council expressed concern at its perception that commissioning seemed increasingly centralised in London and said that the BBC had a real decision to make in philosophical terms on whether it was going to pursue this trend, or take a different approach and thus reflecting the devolved reality of the UK.

The Council expressed its concerns that the last Network commissioned drama to have portrayed Wales on the Networks had been Torchwood and Gavin and Stacey, and that it was now some significant number of years ago that these had been broadcast.

16.4 Radio Wales and Radio Cymru had both experienced a mixed year in 2014- 15, but the Council recognised the fiercely competitive landscape within which both stations operated while also expressing the view that it would welcome an increase in the reach and share of both stations during 2015-16. It was informed by the Director of BBC Wales that it was encouraging that

both stations had experienced an increase in the time audiences spent

listening to them. The Council commended Radio Wales on extending the breadth of its voice, and in particular introducing programmes from Swansea, introduced by Mal Pope. It also asked about the challenges facing the station and members were informed that Editor Radio Wales was currently targeting younger audiences through specific genres such as comedy, but that it was encouraging that the average age of the station was remaining constant despite the average age of the population at large becoming older.

The Council asked for Editor Radio Wales to be invited to a forthcoming

meeting of the Council during the next few months, so as to inform the ACTION: SB Council’s thinking ahead of the launch of the Trust’s Nations Radio and News Services Review during the summer and autumn months.

16.5 The Council was informed that BBC Cymru Wales on-line usage was now reaching 3.6m browsers a week, with news and sport at the vanguard of that growth. A recent piece of research had suggested that on-line was now the most important platform for the people of Wales in terms of accessing news and other current information, and that this shift could require the reprioritisation of effort and finance in due course.

16.6 The Council expressed its appreciation of the presentation it had received from the BBC Wales Editorial Diversity lead in November and said that it

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would welcome an opportunity to hear more about what BBC Wales was ACTION: SB doing to improve diversity both in relation to staff and portrayal.

17 PERFORMANCE OF BBC PROGRAMMING ON S4C

17.1 The Council discussed the performance of Pobol y Cwm and its contribution to S4C’s peak hours. Council expressed concern at the lower average audience levels. However, the Council also observed that Pobol y Cwm’s positive performance was a significant contributor to keeping the peak hours average up overall on S4C.

17.2 Council expressed its concern that S4C had decided to decommission the omnibus edition of Pobol y Cwm on Sunday afternoons and its impact on non-Welsh speaking audiences who had appreciated the open subtitles, while recognising S4C’s absolute right to make this decision.

17.3 Recent research on Pobol y Cwm undertaken jointly by the BBC and S4C, had highlighted some areas for further work by the production team, with one of the most interesting outcomes being the audience’s fondness for community as well as character based stories.

17.4 The Council expressed its disappointment that, with the exception of Newyddion 9, the performance of all the BBC’s returning programmes on S4C was down, year on year. In this context, it welcomed the positive performances of the individual one-off programmes produced by the BBC for S4C such as the portrait of rugby commentator, Huw Llywelyn Davies, which it considered encouraging.

18 NATIONAL TRUSTEE’S REPORT

18.1 The National Trustee reported on the activities undertaken by herself and the BBC Chairman during her visit to Wales, and expressed her gratitude to Council members for their thoughtful contributions to the conversation with the Chairman at its working dinner the previous evening.

19 CHIEF ADVISER’S REPORT

19.1 The Council was reminded about the two speeches given by the BBC Chairman recently, and copies of the audience research undertaken by ICM on behalf of the BBC Trust as background for her speech to the Royal Television Society were distributed.

19.2 The Council’s attention was drawn to the Trust’s work-plan for 2015, and its plans for a Review of Nations’ News and Radio Services to be launched in early autumn.

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20 DISCUSSION ON THE ACW’S AUDIENCE PRIORITIES FOR THE TRUST 2015-16

20.1 The Council discussed the key issues highlighted by audiences during the year under review, and agreed that the Trust unit staff in Wales should circulate a form of words by e-mail for further consideration by ACW members the following week. It was agreed that the ACW’s audience priorities for 2015-16 should be: - the importance of English language television programmes for Wales produced in Wales, and while congratulating the BBC Wales Executive on maximising the impact of the budget available and preserving the quality of the programmes produced, concern at the significant impact of funding cuts on both the genre range and the volume of content produced - concern at the lack of exposure of contemporary Wales on Network TV. Council believes that one way in which this could be addressed effectively is through a more intelligent and creative approach to Nations/Network co-productions. - the Council would welcome better portrayal of diverse ethnic communities in the BBC’s output - while welcoming the technological innovations introduced by the BBC, and welcoming in particular that new apps now, more often than not, include Welsh language and Nations’ content from the launch, believes further steps are required, such as greater prominence for Welsh language content on the CBeebies website. The Council remains concerned that CBeebies is not promoting the Welsh language content on its website and is very concerned that Welsh language games within the CBeebies website do not work on mobile devices. Young children are the most likely members of the Welsh population to be monolingual Welsh speakers and having Welsh language games available via the CBeebies website would also support parents of young children who were trying to help them learn Welsh. - while welcoming the steps already undertaken, and underway shortly, to improve the provision of Radio Cymru and Radio Wales on DAB, the Council is mindful that FM and AM provision remains important and will remain so for some time. The Council has also been reminded during the period under review of the wide disparities in broadband speed and provision in different parts of Wales and considers that the BBC needs to be mindful of this in planning future technological innovations. - the Council warmly welcomes the improvements in the comparison of policy and legal positions across the different nations of the UK, with Radio 4’s the World at One being notable in this respect, but it remains concerned that there is still considerable room for improvement in the flagship TV Network news programmes.

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21 CONFIRMATION OF DATE OF NEXT ACW MEETING

21.1 The next meeting of Council will take place on Friday 17 April at BBC Broadcasting House, Cardiff.

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