It has been announced that S4C will receive an additional £7.5m per annum in funding from 2022 to support the development of its digital offering.

This is a 9% increase for S4C, following 5 years of frozen funding.

The investment will come from the BBC licence fee, which is being frozen at £159 per household until 2024.

A new five-year agreement for S4C will see all its funding entirely sliced from the BBC’s annual £3.7bn licence fee.

In the current financial year, the broadcaster will receive £81m, which includes £6.8m in grant monies from the UK Government’s Department for Media, Culture and Sport with the remainder coming from the licence fee.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said:

The Welsh broadcaster S4C plays a unique and critical role in promoting the Welsh language, and in supporting our wider public service broadcasting landscape.

We believe that this is a fair settlement for the BBC. It is a fair settlement for S4C and, most importantly, it is a fair settlement for licence fee payers all across the United Kingdom.

And let’s not forget: The BBC will continue to receive billions in annual public funding, allowing it to deliver its Mission and Public Purposes, and to continue doing what it does best.

And to support the BBC even further in what is a fast-changing broadcasting landscape, the Government will more than double the borrowing limit of the BBC’s commercial arm to £750 million.

This will enable the BBC to access private finance as it pursues an ambitious commercial growth strategy – boosting investment in the creative economy across the UK.