In recent years the IWA has been active in addressing Welsh Media, prompted by Ofcom’s second review of public service broadcasting. In 2008 the Assembly Government commissioned the IWA to carry out a media audit in Wales. This was published in May 2008 under the title Media in Wales: Serving Public Values. We also conducted public consultations in Wales jointly with Ofcom and conducted a seminar on the issues. An edited transcript of the seminar was published in May 2008 under the title The Future of Welsh Broadcasting.
In April 2009, in the light of concerns about the collapse of non-news broadcasting on ITV in Wales, we published a collection of essays – English is a Welsh Language: Television’s crisis in Wales.
In November 2010 the IWA submitted evidence to the inquiry into S4C by Parliament’s Welsh Affairs Committee. The inquiry had been called after three troubled months for S4C following the S4C Authority’s dismissal of its chief executive, Iona Jones, in July. Following the announcement by the UK coalition government of its comprehensive spending review – on 20 October – the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt announced that S4C’s budget would be cut by 24.4 per cent over the next three years, and that it would be funded through the licence fee rather than from direct taxation. Extensive commentary on these events can be found in the media section of clickonwales.org
On 23 November the Chairman of the IWA gave oral evidence to the committee, alongside Ron Jones, Chairman of the newly-created Creative Industries Board for Wales and of the independent producer, Tinopolis and Ian Hargreaves, Professor of Digital Economy at Cardiff University. Download the written evidence here.