S4C: keeping up with the Joneses

After a traumatic year, Welsh-language broadcaster S4C finally seemed to be reaching calmer waters earlier this month, when news leaked that it had offered the vacant post of chief executive to dark horse candidate, Ian Jones, a Brit TV exec now plying his trade in New York at US cable broadcaster A&E. Jones worked for S4C in the 80s and 90s and is a fluent Welsh speaker, but most importantly is untainted by the farce played out at the broadcaster over the past year as it bumbled from one crisis to the next. However, inevitably, even his hiring is now being accompanied by the sound of bedroom doors slamming and trousers falling down at inopportune moments, with S4C said to have become bogged down in negotiations about extracting Jones from his A&E contract. Meanwhile, S4C is under attack by the Welsh Language Society for not opposing fiercely enough stiff budget cuts, and the transfer of funding responsibility from the government to the BBC. This one could run longer than No Sex Please, We're British.