S4C
(Sianel Pedwar Cymru - 'Channel Four Wales') is a Welsh-language television
channel broadcasting in Wales, United Kingdom, which was established in response
to demands for a channel to cater for the native Welsh-speaking population in
Wales. It is the equivalent of
Channel 4, which broadcasts to the rest of the
United Kingdom. The channel started broadcasting on 1 November 1982, the night
before Channel 4's opening.S4C's remit is to provide a service which is in the Welsh language in peak viewing hours. Previously Welsh speakers had been served by occasional programmes in Welsh broadcast as regional opt-outs on BBC Wales and HTV (the ITV station in Wales), often at obscure times. This was not only unsatisfactory for Welsh speakers, who saw them as a sop, but also an annoyance of the non-Welsh-speaking community which found the English programmes seen in the rest of the UK often rescheduled or not transmitted at all.
During the 1970s, Welsh language activists had campaigned for a TV service in the language, which already had its own radio station, BBC Radio Cymru. This led to acts of civil disobedience, including refusals to pay the television licence, thereby running the risk of prosecution or even a prison sentence, and sit-ins in BBC and HTV studios. Some took more extreme measures, including attacking television transmitters in Welsh-speaking areas. In 1980, the former president of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans, threatened to go on hunger strike, if the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher did not honour its commitment to provide a Welsh language TV service.
S4C does not produce programmes of its own, instead it commissions programmes in Welsh from the BBC and independent producers.