Given the glut of new television series - such as The Apprentice, Dragon’s Den and Make Me a Million - which have appeared in the last few years, one would have thought that television channels in Wales would be scrambling to develop concepts around this highly popular format. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Apart from the WDA sponsored “The Biz” - which had one short season on BBC Wales - programme commissioners in Wales have avoided developing anything to do with the world of entrepreneurs. Yes, we have plenty of series on arts, farming, food, history, sport and wildlife but there is a televisual desert when it comes to the Welsh business sector.
Not that the TV sector has not examined this issue. A few years ago, I was asked to be part of a BBC panel, along with entrepreneurs and businesspeople, to examine the potential for further coverage of business on BBC Wales. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming recommendation was that there should be more business programmes on the television and radio. However, as you can guess, our advice was completely ignored by the powers that be and, apart from the excellent Wales at Work on Radio Wales, BBC Wales has no business programming of any significance.
As a welsh speaker, I am also extremely disappointed that there has been no business programme of note commissioned by S4C since its inception nearly twenty four years ago. This is not through lack of trying by a number of us. For example, a few years ago, after having a conversation with the then chair of S4C about the need to promote greater entrepreneurship in Welsh speaking communities through the medium of television, I was encouraged to discuss this with programme commissioners but again, nothing happened. Given that S4C receives £85 million annually from the Department of Culture, I remain astounded that it can commission programmes on subjects as diverse as horseracing from Tregaron and yet largely ignores anything to do with the wealth creators in Wales.
Don’t get me wrong. I am sure there are markets for every type of programme, however small, but given that S4C is funded overwhelmingly by the public purse, it should surely see a small part of its mission as encouraging greater enterprise amongst Welsh speakers in Wales and celebrating the best of Welsh business. Indeed, preliminary analysis of a report that the National Entrepreneurship Observatory has undertaken into the link between welsh language competency and entrepreneurial activity shows that non-welsh language speakers, as a group, are more enterprising than their welsh speaking equivalents. There is therefore a real need to improve greater interest among Welsh speakers, especially young people, in enterprise and business and S4C could, and should, be playing its part in this.
However, let’s look at this in another way. BBC Wales, ITV Wales and S4C should be more than aware that there are 172,000 businesses in Wales today employing over 700,000 people i.e. a quarter of the population of Wales. This is a massive potential audience that is being ignored by Welsh programme commissioners, despite the interest that Sir Alan Sugar (above) and the panel at Dragon’s Den have already engendered among the viewing public.
More importantly, as any entrepreneur will tell you, each business has their own special story to tell which any programme maker could, and should, turn into a soap opera in its own right! We certainly have the talents amongst production companies such as Tinopolis, Green Bay to develop concepts that can be entertaining, informative and could begin to change perceptions of enterprise in Wales and beyond. All that is needed now is for the television channels in Wales to have the foresight to commission programmes that will celebrate the best of Welsh business, turn viewers on to enterprise and industry, and help to make a significant difference to encouraging further entrepreneurship in Wales.
Comments
Part of the issues with business in Wales is the need to spead to word about innovative forms of financing available outside of state funding.
Private equity is developing rapidly as a sector and offers numerous models for funding innovative tech start-ups as well as more conventional entreprises.
If private equity arrives in the Welsh SME sector in a big way it would amount to a revolution in how business in Wales is conducted and could provide the foundations for a new 'Celtic Tiger'.
Part of the issues with business in Wales is the need to spread to word about innovative forms of financing available outside of state funding.
Private equity is developing rapidly as a sector and offers numerous models for funding innovative tech start-ups as well as more conventional enterprises.
If private equity arrives in the Welsh SME sector in a big way it would amount to a revolution in how business in Wales is conducted and could provide the foundations for a new 'Celtic Tiger'.