S4C's 'disappointing' decline in viewers

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Fewer dramas and sports programmes caused a "substantial" decline in TV viewers for S4C last year.

In the year to 31 March 2019 the channel's average weekly TV audience in Wales fell 14% to 314,000 and fell 4% across the UK, says its annual report.

But there was a jump in online viewers, with 8.6 million viewing sessions on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer.

S4C's chairman said the TV audience fall was "disappointing" but praised efforts to reach audiences online.

The drop in its UK-wide audience figures was in line with falling audiences for other public service broadcasters, chairman Huw Jones wrote in the annual report.

But he added: "The substantial 14% reduction in Wales was due to a number of factors and after a year of impressive progress in 2017-18, it must be admitted that this was disappointing."

The channel's audience was hit by fewer drama series, fewer popular sports programmes and "fiercer" competition from other channels and platforms such as Netflix.

In the previous year, sports audiences had followed coverage of the Lions tour to New Zealand in 2017 and the football team's efforts to reach the World Cup. The good summer weather in 2018 was also blamed for the decline in viewers.

Mr Jones said the channel had attempted to increase its popularity among younger audiences, but it had not always succeeded.

He wrote: "The tendency for younger viewers to turn to other media, and away from television, is a concern for S4C as for other public broadcasters.

"Perhaps also, in the early months of the year, our efforts to appeal to a younger audience by experimenting with new ideas and formats did not succeed sufficiently and at the same time alienated the more traditional part of our audience."

He said it was a "huge challenge" for broadcasters to win a younger audience without losing its core viewers, but that S4C's Hansh online strand and its programming aimed at children and teenagers remained popular.

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Hansh has been developed into an online channel that offers entertainment, factual programmes and news. It received almost seven million viewing sessions, with most viewers aged between 16 and 34.

Chief executive Owen Evans wrote in the report that S4C's long-term strategy was to "transform S4C from being a linear broadcaster into a multi-platform supplier".

He added: "In doing so, we are responding to viewing patterns which are changing around us, and also developing new and exciting partnerships, ensuring that the channel has a strong infrastructure for the future."