A NEW TV channel for Wales should be set up, Assembly Government advisers said today.

They said an English-language answer to S4C would put the needs of Welsh viewers first by giving peak-time slots to programmes about Wales.

A report to Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones on broadcasting warned Wales's media faced a serious situation and that the nation was on course to become a "passive consumer of content created by others rather than having a strong voice of its own".

"Media consumption in Wales is dominated by material from outside," it said.

It said cutbacks to ITV would compound the decline of local newspapers, the weakness of commercial radio and the scarce Welsh presence on UK TV networks.

The Broadcasting Advisory Group said news and current affairs on ITV Wales must be preserved and given better resources.

"Plurality in the provision of news is essential to avoid a near-exclusivity of reporting of Wales by the BBC, and in order to access different audiences."

The current output of English programmes outside news and sport is "not defensible".

The panel, chaired by former S4C chief executive Huw Jones, said a Wales Media Commission should be established to invite bids for broadcasting contracts, for example to make evening news programmes.

The proposed English-language channel could be supported by the BBC or S4C through sharing operations such as transmission, engineering and marketing.

At the outset it could air about three hours of original and bought-in programmes a night, the same level of output as S4C when the Welsh-language channel started.

The group's report said there was "real force in these arguments", particularly if ITV pulled out of public service broadcasting and took key programmes such as Coronation Street with it.

Mr Jones said: "We believe that the report's conclusions provide a compelling rationale for maintaining and strengthening English language public service broadcasting in Wales.

"The report informs the Assembly's response to phase two of Ofcom's review of public service broadcasting and is also a solid foundation on which to base policy in this area moving forward."