S4C 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. It also has regional offices in Caernarfon and Cardiff. As of 2024, S4C had an average of 118 employees. S4C is the fourth-oldest terrestrial television channel in Wales after BBC One, ITV and BBC Two.
S4C Dau was a free-to-air British television station owned by S4C which, until 2010, broadcast coverage of the National Assembly for Wales at the Senedd. It was also used for extended coverage of events shown on the main S4C service, such as the National Eisteddfod of Wales and Royal Welsh Show.
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales.
The media in Wales provide services in both English and Welsh, and play a role in modern Welsh culture. BBC Cymru Wales began broadcasting in 1923 have helped to promote a form of standardised spoken Welsh, and one historian has argued that the concept of Wales as a single national entity owes much to modern broadcasting. The national broadcasters are based in the capital, Cardiff.
Lauren Phillips is a Welsh television actress from Bridgend, Wales.
Rhodri Meilir is a Welsh actor. In 2018, he began portraying the role of Dilwyn in the BBC Three series In My Skin.
John Osmond is a Welsh writer, journalist, former political candidate for Plaid Cymru, and think tank director. He has contributed to numerous books on the subjects of Welsh politics, culture and devolution, and is also a former television producer. Osmond was the founder director of the independent Welsh think-tank, the Institute of Welsh Affairs in 1996 until May 2013. In 2018 he published the first of a trilogy of documentary novels, Ten Million Stars are Burning, which together record the history of Wales between the 1979 and 1997 devolution referendums. Between 2018 and 2022 he was Special Adviser to Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price. In that capacity, in the wake of the 20212 Senedd election he was involved in negotiating the Co-operation Agreement between Labour and Plaid. In 2024 he published an account of how this emerged and its impact, The Politics of Co-Opposition: The Inside Story of the 2021-24 Co-Operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour.
Mali Rhys Harries is a Welsh television actress and presenter who has been in the television industry since 1989. She has appeared in several well-established TV series in Welsh and English, including Hinterland, The Indian Doctor and Pobol y Cwm.
Television in Wales began in 1952. Initially, all programmes were in English with occasional Welsh language programmes. In 1982 Welsh language channel S4C was launched. The digital switchover happened in 2009-2010 and S4C became an exclusively Welsh language channel.
As the capital of Wales, media in Cardiff plays a large role in the city and nationwide. Employment in the sector has grown significantly in recent years, and currently provides employment for 2.1% of the city's workforce – higher than the level across Wales (1.1%) and marginally lower than that across Great Britain as a whole (2.2%).
Angharad Mair is a Welsh television presenter; she is the lead presenter on the nightly S4C Welsh language magazine programme, Heno and the BBC Wales news programme, Wales Today.
Y Pris is a Welsh television crime drama, produced by Fiction Factory for Welsh public service television station S4C. The series, described in its tagline as "The Sopranos by the seaside", is set in Carmarthenshire and follows the "tangled lives of a group of gangsters who hide their illicit dealings". The series was written and created by Tim Price.
Eleri Siôn is a Welsh radio and television presenter. She currently presents The Friday Afternoon Show and The Late Show on BBC Radio Wales Monday-Thursday.
Dyfan Dwyfor is a Welsh actor, from Criccieth.
Gwaith/Cartref is a Welsh language television series that in set in the comprehensive school of Bro Taf, broadcast on S4C. The show was set in the Welsh valley Rhondda Cynon Taf from series one until the end of series five, and Rhymney Valley from the beginning of series six until the end of the show in series nine. The first episode was broadcast on S4C on 18 September 2011 and the final episode on 12 April 2018. Gwaith/Cartref ran for 90 episodes and almost 7 years. In 2019, the first three series were made available on S4C Clic.
Matthew Ian Gravelle is a Welsh screen actor.
Hinterland — Y Gwyll in the original Welsh language version — is a Welsh noir police procedural series broadcast on S4C in Welsh. The main character, DCI Tom Mathias, is played by Richard Harrington. On 27 November 2013, a second series was announced by S4C. The English-language version, with brief passages of Welsh dialogue, aired on BBC One Wales. When it was shown on the BBC in 2014, it was the first BBC television drama with dialogue in both English and Welsh. A third series of the show began filming in January 2016 and debuted on S4C on 30 October.
This is a timeline of the history of television in Wales. It does not include events that affect the whole UK.
