Broadcasting Committee

The Barcud Derwen Group is glad of this opportunity to present written evidence to the National Assembly of Wales Committee on Broadcasting.

Background

Barcud Derwen is a group of television facilities companies formed, registered and substantially owned and based in Wales.

In Wales the company comprises: Barcud - a Caernarfon based studio, outside broadcast, video and audio post production facility; Derwen - a Cardiff based video post production company; Eclipse Creative - a Cardiff based graphics and web creation company; Safon - a Cardiff based events company; Awen - a Cardiff based, multimedia educational resource company; Omni - a Cardiff based high definition OB company; Cymru International - a programme distribution joint venture company; 422 - a Bristol based computer generated graphics company; Burning Gold - a Bristol based production company; Arc - a post production company based in Glasgow and Edinburgh; Picardy - a Glasgow based corporate production company; The Farm - a Dublin based video and audio post production company and Aontel - a Galway based Outside Broadcast joint venture.

Barcud Derwen is also responsible for the televising and web streaming of the proceedings of the National assembly and its committees.

The company employs nearly 200 full time staff and is a major employer of freelance television technicians. The turnover of the group this year will be around £18m. The company is owned by it’s 233 shareholders - many of whom invested in the company in 1990 when the company sold shares in order to finance the building of a £2m purpose built studio which was at the time the largest independent studio outside London. The studio has been used primarily for the production of programmes for S4C, but has also been used in the past by BBC Question Time and others, as well as recently for the production of a pre-school series for CiTV / ITV.

Public Service Broadcasting

We believe that high quality, well budgeted and competitively scheduled Public Service Broadcasting underpins the broadcasting ecology of the United Kingdom. True PSB is more than a series of half hour programmes; at its best it creates something greater than the sum of its parts. S4C has successfully managed this role, where it understands that it has a greater role than simply commissioning and broadcasting television programmes. It has an enhanced cultural role supporting, developing and promoting the Welsh language.

The BBC also fulfils an enhanced role. In Wales it contributes towards an understanding of Welsh nationhood through the medium of the English language. It makes people aware of the Welsh language and Welsh history. It goes without saying that its role in stimulating debate on politics and current affairs is vitally important. On a UK scale the BBC also stimulates debate on current affairs and cultural matters. All this is in addition to creating popular programmes that set a benchmark (both editorially and technical) against which other programmes and broadcasters can be measured. A crude description could be that "the BBC keeps other broadcasters honest”. They can do this because of their guaranteed funding, but that funding also places obligations upon them.

It seems inevitable that commercial pressures and technological change will conspire to remove all vestiges of PSB programming from ITV and probably Channel 4 and Five. The question remains: should these commercial broadcasters receive public money to produce programmes? If the answer is yes, because PSB programming should be seen on all channels - and the best PSB programming is actually entertaining invigorating and challenging, and viewers should not be aware that they are watching PSB programming - then how are these programmes to be paid for.

Top slicing the BBC funding seems to unfairly punish the BBC for a situation not of its making. Extending the licence fee and using the extra income to fund PSB seems to unfairly punish the viewer. One suggestion we would promote would be allowing the BBC to carry advertising during a limited peak period e.g. 19:00-21:00. This income would then be split between the BBC - possibly with a hypothecated use - and a fund that would commission producers and broadcasters to make and transmit PSB programming in peak hours.

Allowing the BBC to keep some of the income would encourage them to create popular programming, placing these at 19:00 after the local news would help both the news and the "commercial” programmes.

Financing the production of PSB programming from this fund would require some method of paying/forcing broadcasters to carry the programmes, because what incentive would there be for ITV, C4, Five etcetera to carry them, especially if they were produced by Independent Producers? The broadcasters could argue that PSB programming wouldn’t draw enough advertising revenue to pay for the slot compared to the programmes they would schedule there of their own free will.

Plurality

The company is concerned about the diminution of local production by ITV Wales (HTV). We believe that it is important for Wales as a nation that it has an opportunity to see itself reflected on television. In addition to providing creative and journalistic competition to BBC Wales in news, we believe that it is vitally important that English language Welsh programmes do not become the exclusive preserve of the BBC. Given the comments by the Executive Chairman of ITV, Michael Grade, we are not confident in the future of ITV Wales as a distinct entity. We are concerned that budgets for the ITV Wales programmes that do exist have fallen dramatically over the last four years. In addition to a falling technical standard - a cause for regret by a company that prides itself on maintaining the highest standards, - diminished budgets also lead to less research, less innovation in programme making and safer formats and eventually less viewers. Barcud Derwen would like to see a feasibility study of taking ITV Wales outside the ITV framework. Ulster TV, SMG in Scotland and Channel Television survive outside Granada owned ITV, therefore why can't Wales have its own independent commercial channel which could have a PBS remit and thus seek subsidy if relevant?

Network Production

It is a matter of regret that so little Welsh production is seen on the main UK networks. Barcud Derwen regularly supplies facilities to network providers as well as producers working for S4C and BBC Wales and is confident that the production skills are available in Wales to produce for the networks. We would like to see specific targets for Welsh production for BBC1/2, ITV1 and C4 rather than "out of London/M25” targets. Barcud Derwen welcomes the Talent Attraction Scheme and is confident that through this scheme there will be an improvement in Welsh presence throughout the UK.

High Definition

Investment

As high definition channels become more prevalent, the requirement for high definition facilities has increased. As with all new technologies, first adaptors have to cope with higher costs. As the technology becomes more available, costs level out. Cameras and video tape recorders are now reasonably common although still costing more than standard definition equipment. However within Wales Barcud Derwen, through its wholly owned subsidiary Omni, is the only company to design and order a high definition outside broadcast "scanner” (mobile control room). However at a cost of £3.7m this investment which is a substantial investment by the company. We believe it is imperative that high definition facilities are available within Wales, not only from an economic perspective, but also to enable the people of Wales to make programmes for the people of Wales, rather than having to continually import those facilities.

Barcud Derwen has also been proud of the fact that we supply Welsh speaking crews and technicians for programmes where knowledge of the language is important. It is vitally important that this continues during and following the transition to high definition.

However we are concerned that Derwen is the last remaining independent post production company in Cardiff. Over recent years, established companies such as Pyramid and POV have closed. Mwnci has been bought by the production company Boomerang. Given the significant level of investment necessary to sustain a top quality post production house, and then given the increased level of investment necessary to prepare for the onset of high definition, it is unacceptable that a licence-fee-funded BBC Wales sells spare editing capacity. Whilst the BBC has significantly increased its technical resources to service Dr Who, and the BBC make great play of the fact that the network series has brought work and investment into Cardiff, it cannot be acceptable that this capacity is then used to undermine local companies who have invested private money in the post production sector.

S4C

Whilst there are numerous HD channels available on digital satellite, the availability of high definition channels on digital terrestrial is in its infancy. It seems that Freeview will have sufficient bandwidth for 4 HD channels. One of these will be reserved for the BBC HD channel. We believe that it is imperative that bandwidth is made available for a Welsh language HD channel - to be run by S4C. Without this a standard definition S4C will quickly come to be seen as second rate, old fashioned and sub standard - leading to loss of status and viewers.

Distribution

The Barcud Derwen Group, through its joint venture Cymru International, distributes Welsh programming on the international stage. In the last 12 months the company has sold over $1.3.m worth of programming. This money returns to Welsh independent producers and broadcasters as profit on their investment.

Cymru International is the only Welsh based programme distributor. Without companies that sell finished programming, there is no value to the intellectual property right contained in the programmes. Through its joint venture the Barcud Derwen Group ensures that 50% of the sales commission returns to Wales.

In addition to any distribution advances made by Cymru International, the Barcud Derwen Group invests in Welsh programming destined for the international market. This investment usually takes the form of deferral on facility hire - recent projects which have benefited from this are "Rivers and Man”, a 6 x 1hr series by Green Bay (already sold to National Geographic Channels International), "Iiiha” a 10 x 15min series by Apollo (already sold to France). This enables projects that might not otherwise get made or financed to proceed, and ultimately return a profit to the producers and for Barcud Derwen as investors. The company would then seek to reinvest profits into further productions.

Barcud Derwen
Contact: Bryn Roberts
bryn@barcudderwen.com
07970112903