As the capital of Wales, media in Cardiff plays a large role in the city and nationwide. Employment in the sector has grown significantly in recent years, and currently provides employment for 2.1% of the city's workforce – higher than the level across Wales (1.1%) and marginally lower than that across Great Britain as a whole (2.2%).

History

At 5pm on 13 February 1923, 5WA Cardiff, a forerunner of BBC Radio Wales, first broadcast from a music shop at 19 Castle Street in

Cardiff city centre Cardiff city centre () is the city centre and central business district of Cardiff, Wales. The area is tightly bound by the River Taff to the west, the Civic Centre to the north and railway lines and two railway stations – Cardiff Cen ...

. Later that evening at 9.30pm Mostyn Thomas, sang Dafydd y Garreg Wen, which was the first

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

song to be broadcast. A commemorative plaque records the event. 5WA Cardiff was a radio service which began broadcasting on 13 February 1923 and ended on 27 May 1933.

Press

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

's daily tabloid newspaper is the ''

South Wales Echo The ''South Wales Echo'' is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Cardiff, Wales and distributed throughout the surrounding area. It has a circulation of 6,026. Background The newspaper was founded in 1884 and was based in Thomson House, C ...

'', founded in 1884 and formerly based in Thomson House, now in 6 Park Street in the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

. There are two daily editions – ''News Extra'' in the morning and ''City Final'' edition. The ''Weekend Edition'' is published on Saturday. Roughly 50,000 copies are sold daily. The national newspapers, the Western Mail and Wales on Sunday, are also based in Thomson House as all are owned by

Trinity Mirror Reach plc (known as Trinity Mirror between 1999 and 2018) is a British newspaper, magazine and digital publisher. It is one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, publishing 240 regional papers in addition to the national ''Daily Mirror'', '' ...

. The Western Mail has a daily circulation of about 40,000. The Cardiff edition of Metro is available daily on public transport in the city and around South Wales. Both the ''South Wales Echo'' and ''Metro'' publish daily information for the city such as the weather and entertainment listings. The

Times Educational Supplement ''TES'', formerly known as the ''Times Educational Supplement'', is a British weekly trade magazine aimed at education professionals. It was first published in 1910 as a pull-out supplement in ''The Times'' newspaper. Such was its popularity th ...

Cymru is based in the city, but the paper itself is printed in England. Gair Rhydd is the award-winning weekly broadsheet published by the students of

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

and is available free in the Cardiff University Students' Union. Cardiff County Council publishes the monthly ''Capital Times'', and the ''Echo Extra'' is delivered free to homes. The Welsh language newspaper Y Dinesydd (or Papur Bro) is published monthly for the city. Additionally, all British daily newspapers are widely available in the city. Magazines based in the capital include Jazz UK, Buzz magazine and Primary Times

Television

All of Wales' national broadcasters are based in Cardiff.

BBC Cymru Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

used to have its headquarters at, the now largely demolished,

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

Llandaff Llandaff (; ; from 'church' and ''River Taff, Taf'') is a district, Community (Wales), community and coterminous electoral ward in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It was incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Bisho ...

while

ITV Cymru Wales ITV Cymru Wales is the ITV franchise for Wales. The new separate licence began on 1 January 2014, replacing the long-serving dual franchise region ITV Wales & West serving Wales and the West of England, which had previously used the branding " ...

is based near the

Senedd The Senedd ( ; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, Its role is to scrutinise the Welsh Government and legislate on devolve ...

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay (; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and River Ely, Ely. The body of water was converted into a lake as part ...

and the Welsh language broadcaster

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

broadcasts from Llanishen. In addition, a local television channel for the city, Made in Cardiff, is based in offices at St Mary's Street in the city centre. An analogue local TV channel, Capital TV, broadcast as a low-power RSL analogue station from 2002 to 2009. The city also has its own Ofcom-licensed local digital television spectrum, owned by Cube Interactive.

Radio

As the national broadcaster,

, used to broadcast

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Wales, Welsh national radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the Welsh opt-out service of BBC Radio 4. As of August 2022, the stat ...

(103.9 FM) and BBC Radio Cymru (96.8 FM) on various frequencies across Wales from

in Llandaff. Cardiff's principal commercial radio stations are

Capital South Wales Capital South Wales is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global Media & Entertainment, Global as part of the Capital (radio network), Capital network. It broadcasts to Cardiff and Newport, Wales, Newport and the ...

(103.2 FM), Heart South Wales (105.4 FM) and Smooth Wales (DAB); all three of which originate local programming from studios at the Red Dragon Centre in

. Radio Cardiff (98.7 FM) is a community station based in the

Butetown Butetown (or ''The Docks'', ) is a district and community (Wales), community in the south of the city of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marqu ...

area and Radio Glamorgan broadcasts to the University Hospital of Wales in

Heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

. Student radio station Tequila Radio broadcasts from the

University of South Wales The University of South Wales (USW) () is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport. The ...

's ATRiuM Campus and Xpress Radio originates from

Students' Union A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizat ...

Other institutions

The ''Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies'' is based at

. The '' Atrium'' building houses most of the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries faculty (CCI for short) of the

Use in media

Cardiff is the filming location and/or setting for many mainstream television programmes such as ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' and its spin-offs, ''

Torchwood ''Torchwood'' is a British-American science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. A spin-off of the 2005 revival of ''Doctor Who'', it aired from 2006 to 2011. The show shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect i ...

'' and '' The Sarah Jane Adventures'', '' Class (2016 TV series)'', ''

Merlin (TV series) ''Merlin'' (also known as ''The Adventures of Merlin'') is a British fantasy-Adventure film, adventure drama (film and television), drama television programme, loosely based on the Arthurian legends regarding the close relations of Merlin and K ...

'', ''

Gavin & Stacey ''Gavin & Stacey'' is a British sitcom created, written by and starring James Corden and Ruth Jones about two families: one from Billericay in Essex, and the other from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. Mathew Horne and ...

'', '' The Story of Tracy Beaker (TV series)'', '' His Dark Materials (TV series)'', Netflix's '' Sex Education (TV series)'', '' Caerdydd'' and Pobl y Cwm, and for films such as '' Human Traffic'', '' The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain'', ''

Infinite (film) ''Infinite'' is a 2021 American science fiction action film directed by Antoine Fuqua, from a screenplay written by Ian Shorr based on a story by Todd Stein (itself adapted from D. Eric Maikranz's 2009 novel '' The Reincarnationist Papers''). T ...

'' and ''

28 Weeks Later ''28 Weeks Later'' is a 2007 post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rowan Joffé, Enrique López Lavigne and Jesus Olmo. It serves as a standalone sequel to '' 28 Days Later'' (20 ...

''. It is also referenced in '' Mars Attacks!'' It was announced on 15 October 2008 that the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

is to move the filming shows such as Casualty and

Crimewatch ''Crimewatch'' (formerly ''Crimewatch UK'') is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was or ...

to studios in

. and confirmed on 27 March 2009 that filming would be begin in 2011. In 2010, Cardiff was used for filming of a contemporary update of

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

in Sherlock, and for a remake of Upstairs, Downstairs. In 2012, Cardiff was the filming location of new

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

reality show The Valleys. The reality caused controversy and Welsh viewers were angered with the way the Welsh were stereotyped. The reality show takes young hopefuls from ''The Valleys'' and move them to Cardiff to pursue their dream careers. The show also shows the cast binge drinking, fighting, having casual sex and revealing themselves. The BBC 2 quiz Only Connect is produced in Cardiff.

References

External links

Capital TV

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