As we head into another season of sport, BBC Radio Wales Editor Colin Paterson blogs about the station’s sports output.
BBC Radio Wales is a proud supporter of Welsh sport. As the national radio station for Wales, we want to ensure that we prioritise the moments involving our national teams and beyond.
We cover the whole of Wales and deliver a wide range of content – news, current affairs, politics, sport, music, entertainment, factual and drama. The challenge is to do this in a way which brings the radio station together in a cohesive way. While the future of digital technology provides huge opportunities in how we deliver our content there is a debate about the future of traditional methods of transmission, which are likely to change or even be phased out altogether. As Editor, my job is to think about the future of how we deliver our programmes.
In recent years, we’ve broadcast a weekday evening programme - Radio Wales Sport. We’re going to bring this programme to an end and put our resources into key sports programmes during the week. For Swansea and Cardiff, commentary for every game will be available on FM/digital radio in the south west and south east respectively. Some Swansea and Cardiff games will be available across Wales, rights restrictions allowing. For Wrexham, every game will be available via the BBC Sport Wales website, and on FM/digital for key games. For Newport, we will provide match updates and will broadcast key games in the south east on FM/digital radio. Due to league restrictions, the online commentary rights for Newport are not available to us, but it is a conversation we continue to pursue. We believe this move towards delivering commentary online reflects the future of sports broadcasting, and also allows us to provide a more consistent offering on BBC Radio Wales.
Janice Long will continue to present her music-driven programme, live from Wrexham, between 7pm and 10pm, Monday to Thursday. On Friday, The Friday Night Social will continue between 7pm and 10pm, providing in-depth coverage, a round-up of the week, a preview of the weekend and key football and rugby commentaries. On a Saturday afternoon, BBC Radio Wales sport continues with live sports updates and commentaries from around Wales. Furthermore, the very popular Call Rob Phillips returns for the new season.
Breaking sports news and sports journalism continues in Good Morning Wales and our sports bulletins across the day. In addition, in-depth sports news and analysis is available on the BBC Sport Wales website.
As well as the sport you can hear on the radio, we will begin the new season with three Welsh sport podcasts: Scrum V (rugby), BBC Radio Wales Football (football coverage from all leagues across Wales) and The Friday Night Social (a shortened version of the Friday night programme). We also have more ideas for future on air and podcast programmes – watch this space.