Nearly a million viewers in Wales have tuned in to S4C over the past four weeks, with an additional 400,000 tuning in outside Wales.
The good news regarding S4C’s viewing figures comes at the end of the year where the channel has seen an increase in the number of people watching its programmes in 2010, compared to 2009.
S4C’s improved viewing figures have not been confined to Wales with an additional 149,000 people tuning into the Welsh language Channel outside Wales. The figure, up 54% on the same period in 2009, means that 612,000 different people in the UK watched S4C in any given week in 2010.
Programmes including Pobol y Cwm and Only Men Aloud have also proven to be hits with the audience.
In recent weeks, S4C saw the best viewing figures for its flagship daily soap opera, Pobol y Cwm, produced by BBC Cymru Wales, since 2006. The same can be said for Ffermio, the long-running farming series produced by Teledu Telesgop. Noson Lawen, S4C’s flagship entertainment series, produced by Cwmni Da, also attracted its best viewing figures since early 2007.
Programmes with musical phenomenon Only Men Aloud over the past year have also pleased 535,000 people from all over the UK. Viewers have tuned in to programmes featuring the choir including series Only Men Aloud, which has been commissioned for a second series in 2011, documentary series Only Men Aloud: O Dredegar Newydd i Efrog Newydd and the opening concert ‘Back Home’ at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Blaenau Gwent.
The online output was also boosted with an increase during the past twelve months. So far this year, the S4C website has received 1.8 million visits with the on-demand programme catch-up service Clic up 52% on the same period in 2009.
