S4C

This article is about the Welsh-language public broadcaster. For the UK public broadcaster, see Channel 4. For other uses, see Channel 4 (disambiguation).

Sianel Pedwar Cymru (Channel Four Wales/S4C)
S4C logo used from 10 April 2014
CountryUnited Kingdom
Broadcast areaWales[a]
HeadquartersCanolfan S4C Yr Egin, Carmarthen, Wales
Programming
Language(s)Welsh[b]
Picture format1080i/1080p HDTV[c]
(downscaled to 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
OwnerS4C Authority
History
Launched1 November 1982; 42 years ago (1982-11-01)
Links
Website
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview (Wales only)
  • Channel 4 (SD)
  • Channel 104 (HD)[d]
Streaming media
S4C ClicWatch live (UK and Ireland; with adverts)
BBC iPlayerWatch live (UK only; without adverts)

S4C (Welsh pronunciation: [ˌɛs ˌpɛdwar ˈɛk], Sianel Pedwar Cymru, meaning Channel Four Wales) is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience. S4C's headquarters are based in Carmarthen, at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David's creative and digital centre, Yr Egin.[1] It also has regional offices in Caernarfon and Cardiff. As of 2024, S4C had an average of 118 employees.[2] S4C is the fourth-oldest terrestrial television channel in Wales after BBC One, ITV and BBC Two.

As with Channel 4 (which launched the next day in the rest of the UK), S4C commissions all of its programmes from independent producers. BBC Cymru Wales produces programmes for S4C as part of its public service remit, including the news service Newyddion. From its launch until 2010, S4C also carried English-language programming acquired from Channel 4, which could not be received over-the-air in most of Wales; these programmes aired in non-peak hours and did not always air in pattern with Channel 4's scheduling.

S4C has been described by Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones [ca] as a "trailblazer" in European broadcasting for minority languages, going on air less than two months before Euskal Telebista (31 December 1982), TV3 Catalonia (test/trial broadcast on 11 September 1983, regular programming began in 1984) and Televisión de Galicia (24 June 1985), the first Spanish regional television stations to go on air, symbolically, in non-Castillan Spanish areas, and far ahead of other Celtic-language services, Ireland's TG4 (formerly TnaG) (31 October 1996), the ill-fated Scottish Gaelic TeleG (1999–2011) and BBC Alba (19 September 2008). Unlike similar broadcasters in Spain who have multichannel offers impulsed mostly by digital terrestrial television, S4C still broadcasts on a single channel after the shutdown of S4C2.[3]

On digital terrestrial television, S4C has broadcast exclusively in Welsh since the platform's launch in 1998, with the existing bilingual schedule continuing on analogue television. After the completion of the digital switchover in Wales on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became available on Freeview, and S4C ceased its carriage of English-language programmes. S4C offers translated, English-language subtitles for its Welsh programming. To this day, S4C remains the only Welsh-language television broadcaster in the country.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "S4C's new £6m home officially opens". BBC News. 26 October 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
  2. ^ "S4C: Mwy yn gwylio yng Nghymru, ond cwymp ar draws y DU". BBC Cymru Fyw (in Welsh). 12 July 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  3. ^ Elain Price. Broadcasting for Wales: The Early Years of S4C Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2022.