A joint research project was commissioned at the end of 2005 by S4C, BBC Wales, The Arts Council of Wales and The Welsh Language Board, and undertaken by Beaufort Research of Cardiff. The aim of the project was to look at Welsh speakers in the 22-45 year old age group in particular, and the extent to which they live their lives through the medium of Welsh. A copy of the research findings can be seen in pdf format by clicking here.
Living Lives through the Medium of Welsh (PDF)
As with all broadcasters, research is important to S4C, to ascertain public opinion. Research is carried out under the following headings:
S4C's audience is measured by BARB [Broadcasters' Audience Research Board], which also measures all TV audiences throughout Britain. In January 2010 a brand new television measurement system was launched, when new panel members were selected. The last time this happened was in 2002.
There are 600 homes in Wales on BARB's measurement panel, with 340 of these consisting of at least one Welsh speaker. Viewing patterns are measured by placing a meter in each of the homes, which automatically calculates which channel is being viewed, as well as who is viewing, by asking each family member to press a personalised button on a special handset when he or she is watching.
Each home on the panel is carefully selected by BARB, ensuring that they are representative of the type of home, individual, TV reception and facilities within the home, for example, video, PVR (personal video recorder, e.g. Freeview+, Sky+) or ownership of more than one television.
There are over 600 Welsh speakers on the measurement panel, and with BARB estimating approximately 622,000 Welsh speakers (Aged 4+) in Wales, on balance, this means that one Welsh speaker represents around 1,000 people in Wales . This compares favourably to the sample throughout Britain, with 5,100 homes and 12,500 individuals on the overall panel, with one individual on the British panel representing around 4,600 people.
Overnight viewing figures arrive at S4C the following morning, with final viewing figures arriving within eight days.
The following data is derived from the panel:
S4C's Reaction Panel is conducted by Kantar Media.
There are 1,500 people on the panel consisting of Welsh and non Welsh speakers, with the overall panel representative of those who can receive S4C in Wales in terms of geography, age, social class and sex.
Every month, each member receives a programme diary and questionnaire. The programme diary contains all the programmes within a given week in the month, for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, and S4C. The member awards a mark out of 10 for each programme watched in the diary, resulting in AI's [Appreciation Indices] for each of these programmes. An AI is a score out of 100 and S4C’s programme scores are compared with other channels.
The questionnaire content varies each month with questions about television programmes as well as questions about general issues.
Varied research projects are held throughout the year. These can include the piloting of programmes before they are broadcast, assessing people's opinions of various presenters, focusing on certain types of programmes, or general projects that relate to language or channel imagery.
A survey is conducted twice a year of 1,000 people (800 Welsh speakers, and 200 non Welsh speakers) throughout Wales, to measure factors relating to channel imagery.
S4C's Senior Research Officer (Children's Services) visits schools to assess the opinions of school children towards S4C programmes, and their general interests. Every year, a number of primary and secondary schools are selected to be on the Children's Panel, and classes from many of the schools receive regular visits to ask their opinions. This information is used alongside other information sources, such as omnibus surveys, to gauge reaction to our services.
Many aspects of on-line services are measured: below is a list of the main currencies, and their definitions:
Viewing Sessions - number of sessions of viewing on the website, including live viewing. It is possible to distinguish programmes from clips and promotional material.
Downloads - number of times an item has been downloaded, for example a podcast or an App.
Visits - number of visits to a website, counting only one visit every half hour by computer
Unique Users - number of different visitors that have visited the website in the period
Page Impressions - number of pages viewed within a website, a page can count more than once
Frequency - how many times unique users have visited a website on average
We also monitor the use of the different social networking sites.
To coincide with S4C's series on the religious revival, "Diwygiad 04/05", shown in October 2004, S4C commissioned research to discover the attitudes and behaviour of people in Wales regarding religion. Beaufort Research placed questions on religion on behalf of S4C in their regular Omnibus Survey in June 2004.
This was a representative sample throughout Wales of 993 individuals aged over 16. The data tables show analyses by subregion and by demographics. This data should not be reproduced for publishing without prior consultation with S4C.
Click here to read the document 'Research into Religion in Wales'.
In conjunction with the RNID, S4C has conducted research among a sample of S4C viewers and has now concluded that a more wide-ranging and detailed study of the viewers' needs is essential before developing the subtitling service.
Click here to read the document:
'Research into the demand for Welsh language subtitling in Wales'.
These document are available in 'Adobe Acrobat PDF' format. If you haven't got the Acrobat 'plug-in' installed in your browser, you can get it from the Adobe website (it's completely free).
