Janet Lewis-Jones, National Trustee for Wales and Chair of the Audience Council :
"Last year, the new BBC Royal Charter transformed the way in which the BBC is governed establishing the BBC Trust and the Audience Council for Wales.
"The Trust sets the overall strategic direction of the BBC exercising oversight of its work on behalf of licence fee payers and the Council makes sure that the views of people in Wales feature significantly in the Trust's work."
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"During 2007-08, the first full year of the Council's existence, it has worked in the interests of audiences in Wales. It made representations to the BBC Trust on many significant issues :
- The Audience Council strongly supported the introduction of the Freesat digital TV service to tackle lack of access to digital TV, launched in May of this year, which will overcome some of the barriers which currently prevent people from getting digital TV in Wales.
- It voiced the frustration felt by many in Wales that BBC Network News and current affairs programmes do not always report properly on matters in Wales, including issues devolved to the National Assembly. This led to the BBC Trust commissioning an impartiality review resulting in a report by Prof Anthony King supported by independent research on the issue - some of it from Cardiff University
- The Council continued to draw the Trust's attention to the problems of availability of DAB in Wales, especially the fact that Radio Cymru and Radio Wales are not available on DAB to half the population and an estimated 70% of Welsh speakers can't get Radio Cymru
- The Council drew attention to the particular importance in Wales of the BBC's education services in Welsh and English, expressing concern over the Trust's suspension of BBC Jam and strongly recommending that Jam material close to completion at the time the service was suspended should be released as soon as possible
- The Council emphasised the importance of ensuring that the UK sees and hears much more of modern Wales in BBC Network output.
"The Annual Review gives the Council's view of the performance of the BBC in Wales during 2007/08 - including radio and TV programme successes such as Coal House, and the Radio Cymru Clasuron series as well as the significant successes of many BBC Wales programmes on Network such as Doctor Who, Torchwood and Across the Divide.
"It gives me great pride to chair the Audience Council for Wales. I look back with admiration at the immense amount the Council has achieved during 2007- 2008 and look forward to seeing further successes resulting from the Council's determination to ensure that the interests of audiences in Wales lie at the heart of all that the BBC does."
The Audience Council for Wales, established under the BBC Royal Charter, ensures that the views of the viewers listeners and service users are heard by the BBC Trust. During the past year it has hosted public meetings in many parts of Wales and reflected the views of the BBC's audiences in its responses to a variety of consultations conducted by the BBC Trust.
As a document of record the Annual Review is not updated after publication.
