Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru / National Assembly for Wales
Pwyllgor Diwylliant, y Gymraeg a Chyfathrebu / The Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee
Radio yng Nghymru / Radio in Wales
CWLC(5) RADIO02
Ymateb gan Marc Webber / Evidence from Marc Webber
Dear Committee,
Thank you for inviting me to your session on Radio in Wales. I hope you found the information useful.
I would just like to offer a quick follow-up to some of the points I raised in the meeting.
The first is further information around how I believe a Welsh Language national commercial station can be viable.
There is already a very successful version of this idea running in the Republic of Ireland.
The main Irish Language broadcasters have joined together with Radioplayer (part-owned by Global and the BBC) to create An Seinnteoir Raidió - a digital radio player available as an app or online which offers all the Irish Language radio output in one place.
The story about it's launch is below. I know Radioplayer are very keen to recreate this service in the Welsh Language and would be happy to discuss it with you.
In terms of running a 24/7 radio station in the Welsh Language on DAB. Most of the owners of all the local DAB licences in Wales (the only one that was not was Swansea Sound). They could be persuaded/asked right now to release frequency from those licences to stream Capital Cymru in its current format throughout Wales, as opposed to it only being available in NW Wales. Most of those DAB licences in Wales are either owned by Global or Nation Radio.
Admittedly, trying to get Capital Cymru on FM is a larger task due to the prohibitive cost of FM transmission, which is part down to topography, part down to a monopoly held by Arqiva.
I see revenue potential from rolling out Capital Cymru across Wales on online, DAB and FM formats. This could be started by the Assembly and Welsh Government themselves by buying airtime for current Welsh Language campaigns with Capital Cymru. National non-governmental institutions would then follow through the Global sales teams in Cardiff and Wrexham using their leverage to get more money for their company.
Marketing is perhaps the big concern and a concerted effort to raise awareness of the new station should be made by stakeholders.