BBC Wales or BBC West Britain?

Wales Online report that "More people are watching BBC Wales television programmes despite fewer of them being made, the broadcaster’s annual report has revealed".

But it shows that in recent years there has been a decline in the annual programme hours made by BBC Wales.

In 2013-14 there were 603 hours of programmes, against 614 the previous year and 698 in 2011-12. In 2007 there were 766 hours of English language programmes made.

Yet in terms of audience reach, the numbers have been rising. In 2011-12, an average of 940,000 people per week watched programmes on BBC Wales, rising to 945,000 in 2012-13 and 970,000 in 2013-14.

BBC Wales director Rhodri Talfan Davies said the increase in viewers had been achieved by more people watching popular series like Hinterland and Indian Doctor.

Writing in this year’s Annual Review – which covers the period 2013/14 – Mr Talfan Davies says the speed of change in Wales poses the biggest creative challenge of all.

He said: 

“Our job must be to reflect and explore contemporary Wales as it really is today – not how it might once have been, or how we might want it to be. And over the last year, I believe BBC Wales has made major strides in capturing the new realities.
“Hinterland, The Country Midwives and The Hill Farm have all reflected an authentic bilingual Wales that has too often in the past been missing from our screens.

 “Our special season looking at health and obesity in Wales – Live Longer Wales – attracted more than 1.1m viewers. And The Call Centre on BBC Three provided an entertaining but important insight into young lives and concerns in contemporary Wales.”

So far so good  but them wales Online thren goes on to say 

the review also captures a record-breaking year for BBC Wales including the highest audiences in a decade for BBC Wales programming on BBC One Wales and BBC Two Wales – with almost 1m viewers tuning in each week; a 30% growth in online usage, driven by mobile and tablet devices, with almost 3.7m unique browsers now accessing BBC Wales’ interactive services each week; the global success of the Doctor Who anniversary and the return of Sherlock, which attracted the biggest audience for a BBC drama in over a decade; and a 13% increase in weekly audiences for Radio Cymru – and Radio Wales continuing to attract almost 500,000 listeners each week.

Once again we get an emphasis on Dr Who and Sherlock which are programmes "Made In Wales" but have no Welsh impart.

True when  Russell T Davies brought Dr Who back there were a number of episodes based in Cardiff and the spin of Torchwood  storyline  was based  a the capital.

But whilst Dr Who, Sherlock and other programmes  are made in Wales they are not "Welsh Programmes"

They do benefit Welsh television by employment and presumably result in yougn Welsh Talent being used in thier making.

But then one of the benefits that S4C brought to Wales was that it provided a source  for welsh Talent off screen as well as on.  maybe mote so

Something the BBC is benefiting from now. Maybe its timethe BBC in Cardif acknowledge this and part of th suces of Dr Who is due to those nutured by S4C,

Lets be honest in the pitifull of the list of successful programmes   which are Welsh in contest given by BBC Wales only Hinterland can be seen as a quality programme and even that was not given a prime time slot on the UK network.

It seems that we will continue to see BBC Wales expand in programme making but producing paradoxically  making less about the country they are based in.

Is it not time we had a good hard lok in broadcasting in Wales and how we can improve English language output that is about us and our lives.