Annual report and accounts
S4C’s coverage of live events from all parts of Wales continue to evolve, bringing the nation together and ensuring the Welsh language plays a part in their lives – whether they speak a lot, a little, or non at all. And we continue to build on enhancing our offer to the audience – at home, or wherever they may be – through increased multi-platform streaming initiatives.
In June 2023, we announced that S4C will broadcast Cymru senior men’s international football matches until 2028 as part of a new deal struck with partner Viaplay. Welsh language coverage will include the two UEFA Nations League campaigns for 2024–25 and 2026–27, the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying matches and the UEFA EURO 2028 qualifying matches. International friendly matches will also be part of the deal that will see at least 40 live games on S4C.
The Rugby World Cup held in France during autumn 2023 also proved to be a highlight of S4C’s sporting content during 2023–24. S4C broadcast live every Wales game, with special editions of Jonathan (Afanti) also bringing the excitement to the audience at home.
In addition, the audience was offered an opportunity to catch up on all the latest from the Wales camp with the Allez Les Rouges (S4C Chwaraeon) vodcast presented by Lauren Jenkins. Weekly episodes of the vodcast were released in the run up to the campaign and during the World Cup via S4C’s YouTube channel and BBC Sounds.
In all, content relating to the Rugby World Cup contributed to a significant increase in viewing sessions for S4C Chwaraeon across its social media presences. There were 2.7 million viewing sessions during October 2023 – primarily on Instagram and TikTok – which represented a year-on-year increase of 969%!
In terms of the other national events covered, S4C had an incredibly successful week at the 2023 Carmarthenshire Urdd Eisteddfod with a reach of 254,000 in Wales –an increase of 24% compared to 2022.
For the 2023 Urdd Eisteddfod, S4C offered more ways than ever to watch as all competitions from the Red, White, and Green pavilions were streamed live on S4C Clic from 08:00 each day until the end of the competing. Over the week there were 77,000 viewing sessions of the live streaming from these pavilions.
Overall, programming from the Urdd Eisteddfod (excluding the live streaming) had 80,000 viewing sessions on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer. And across S4C’s social media, content relating to the Urdd Eisteddfod received over 1 million impressions.
Our coverage from the National Eisteddfod (BBC Cymru Wales) also proved popular. S4C saw a 61% increase in viewing hours of Eisteddfod content in comparison with the previous year – resulting in that week in 2023 achieving the highest number of viewing hours for S4C since 2012.
S4C’s coverage of other events during the summer of 2023 also proved popular, including Tafwyl (Orchard Media), the Royal Welsh (Boom Cymru / Slam Media), the Green Man Festival (On Par), and Pride Cymru (Boom Cymru) across various platforms. We hope to further build on this success during the live events held during summer 2024.
At a community level, we also took our Cyw Christmas Show to five locations in all corners of Wales – Wrexham, Cardiff, Caernarfon, Llanelli, and Newtown – attracting audiences of over 8,600 families. Our interaction with the younger audience continued into the new year through our presence once again at the Take Part Festival in Llandudno – a festival which attracts over 3,500 which includes many families from mixed-language households from across north Wales.