S4C and the BBC are already discussing closer collaboration S4C is to launch a judicial review of the decision to transfer responsibility for the funding of Welsh language channel to the BBC.
Details are expected to be outlined later at Westminster.
Chair of S4C Authority John Walter Jones said it will “effectively merge” the broadcasters and have “disastrous” consequences for viewers.
Mr Jones said he first heard of the plans on BBC Radio Cymru on Tuesday evening.
The channel will seek a judicial review of the decision and the way it was taken behind closed doors.
“I am astounded at the contempt that the London government has shown not just towards S4C, but also towards the Welsh people and indeed the language itself”
John Walter Jones Chair, S4C Authority
Mr Jones said it would mean the BBC would have effective control over the finances and operations of the channel.
“The effect of the financial cuts agreed between Jeremy Hunt and the BBC will have a disastrous effect for viewers across Wales, and this at a time when the BBC has already cut spending on both English and Welsh language programming in Wales.
“Under such an arrangement it is inevitable that Welsh language television would have to compete with every other BBC service and the S4C Authority believes that this would pose a serious risk to the provision of Welsh language television.
“I am astounded at the contempt that the London government has shown not just towards S4C, but also towards the Welsh people and indeed the language itself.
He added that he was told by the Culture Secretary that it was a non-negotiable agreement only after they were leaked on the BBC last night.
£100m budget
“This is no way to conduct public affairs and surely is an affront to the good conduct of public policy and the democratic process.
Culture minister Alun Ffred Jones has already expressed his surprise and anger at not being informed about the move.
It is unclear if the BBC will have to fund the entire £100m budget, but there are assurances the channel would stay operationally independent.
Under the arrangements, it is being reported that the BBC would take over the finances of S4C by 2015.
Government sources have said there is no question of the BBC “taking over” S4C.
The minister told BBC Wales that there had been no discussion or debate at all in Wales about the new funding arrangements for S4C.
He said the move had gone under the radar and that the channel was being dismantled with no reference to Wales at all.
The leaked news that the BBC is likely to have responsibility for funding S4C in the future has sent shockwaves through the Welsh political and media establishment.
It was an option that had been canvassed by the DCMS in private meetings over the past couple of months, but well-informed Westminster sources told BBC Wales last week that they believed it was definitively off the table.
Indeed, in the so-called “bonfire of the quangos” last Thursday, S4C was told that its inflation-linked funding would be scrapped and in future the UK Culture Secretary would decide its budget.
No hint there of any tie-up, financial or otherwise with the BBC. All that seemed to have changed on Tuesday afternoon. The chair of the S4C Authority, John Walter Jones was only briefed that evening, and the Assembly Government Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones was not given any details at all.
Broadcasting isn’t a devolved matter, so there was no obligation on the DCMS to inform the assembly government of the developments, but ministers in Cardiff Bay are furious at what they see as a blatant breach of the respect agenda, given the social, cultural and economic importance of S4C to Wales.
Once the anger has subsided though, attention will quickly turn to how the new, much closer relationship between the BBC and S4C is going to work in practice. The recent boardroom difficulties within S4C, culminating in the departure of Chief Executive Iona Jones, are a graphic illustration of why governance and accountability are so vital to the smooth running of organisations.
It appears that the model being proposed is a joint management board to govern the relationship between the two organisations. However, this would also need to satisfy the DCMS’s requirement for S4C to have operational independence from the BBC – a tricky line to walk.
In the meantime, S4C is likely to face budget cuts of six per cent a year for the next two years, before the new funding and governance arrangements kick in.
Mr Jones said: “I knew nothing of a deal.”
He also denied that there had been any discussion of transferring S4C to assembly government.
“It is not healthy, it doesn’t matter what the BBC is about, it is not healthy to have one broadcaster dominating the broadcasting and the media scene here in Wales.
“And therefore we will have to look carefully at how to preserve the independence of S4C if that is possible within the parameters of the deal”.
The minister said there was also concern about the BBC’s domination of broadcasting in Wales.
“Not that the BBC’s bad or doesn’t do the job well, it just over dominates the scene.
“But in terms of editorial control then it is very important that we have another body that actually commissions programmes apart from the BBC.
“It is simply not heallty to have one organisation overbearingly influential in this field.”
BBC Wales political editor Betsan Powys understands that a model being proposed is a joint management board to govern the relationship between the two organisations.
“However, this would also need to satisfy the DCMS’s requirement for S4C to have operational independence from the BBC – a tricky line to walk,” she said.
‘Devil was in the detail’
Shadow Wales Office Minister Owen Smith MP said he feared the impact on the plurality of broadcasting in Wales and the effect on the BBC’s budget.
“They’re already talking about the BBC’s budget being cut by almost 20%, 16 to 17% over that period, that’s a fifth of the BBC budget by my reckoning, that’s pretty enormous,” said Mr Smith.
Education Secretary Michael Gove told BBC Wales that funding for S4C would come out of the “very very generous settlement that the BBC has had over the years.”
“The BBC has already, thanks to Mark Thompson, been saying to some of the people who’ve been earning more than £200,000 to £300,000 that their jobs will have to go.
“And the BBC is leading the way in saying to some of the highly-paid executives who’ve been essentially using public money to fund their very generous salaries that in the future they need to have their money go to ensure that S4C, which does a very good job, is sustained in the future
Plaid’s parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd MP said there were a lot of questions to be asked and the “devil was in the detail”.
It is believed the BBC will also have to fund the World Service, but the licence fee will stay the same for six years, under the arrangements.
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