[lookoutwales]

Been reading up a rather excellent book by Elain Price on the early years of S4C, which I thoroughly recommend (it's called 'Broadcasting for Wales')

One bit of interest goes into detail about how HTV - which had already run into some trouble regarding programme supply - tried to secure the news contract (not wanting to give up their Welsh language news requirements)

The NUJ suggested setting up an independent unit, but that was quickly ruled out - while HTV even favoured a Thames-LWT style split between them and the BBC (HTV until 7pm on Friday and BBC throughout the weekend), which the Beeb steadfastly rejected.

It took the two heads of programming to come up with a provisional (but not ideal) agreement to take news from one provider and current affairs from the other.

Which is pretty much what happened in the end, because soon after, doubts emerged about the high costs of HTV's proposed service - £9 million for weekdays alone (the BBC were offering theirs for free), before finally, ITN put their foot down on any separate editorial control of their material, which cleared the way for the Beeb.