Additional £250k ensures Wales Broadcast Archive accessible to all

Even more content from the broadcast history of Wales will be made easily accessible to all, thanks to an additional award of nearly £250,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to the Wales Broadcast Archive.  

Adaptations to the project, made possible by this award, will give far better access for people with disabilities, especially Deaf and hearing impaired people, or blind and visually impaired people.  

The announcement was made last night, at the glittering launch of the Wales Broadcast Archive Centre – the first unified archive of its kind in the UK – where stars of radio and television saw first-hand how their work has been preserved for use by future generations. 

Much of the additional funds will be spent on enhancing the accessibility at the viewing centres, improving the accessibility of the website and online archive, and provide a subtitling programme for content used for outreach projects. 

Chief Executive and Librarian of the National Library of Wales, Pedr ap Llwyd said: 

”We are enormously thankful to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for this additional quarter of a million pounds. This archive of national significance will now be made even more accessible to all, and provide more people with a way of understanding the history and culture of Wales and its people, through the hundreds of thousands of hours of radio and television captured here.”  

“With this funding for accessibility, we will be able to ensure that all can have the opportunity to access this innovative and comprehensive archive.” 

Andrew White, Director of The National Lottery Heritage Fund in Wales said: 

“Broadcasting has played a major role in documenting the history of modern Wales – from heart-breaking news reports from the scene the Aberfan disaster; to inspirational lectures like Saunders Lewis’ Tynged yr Iaith, S4C’s first broadcast in 1982 and the high and lows of Wales football team at the Euros in 2016 and the World Cup in 2022. 

“It has also allowed us to look back and learn about our heritage through programmes such as ‘The Dragon Has Two Tongues: A History of the Welsh’ in 1985, ‘The Story of Wales’ in 2012 and has put Wales on the map with popular series such as ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Keeping Faith’ and ‘Hinterland.’ 

“It is our privilege to support this important and ground-breaking project which will preserve and share the broadcast heritage of Wales so that today’s and future generations can appreciate, enjoy and learn from it for years to come.”