HTV and S4C's victory in the battle for the contract to broadcast all domestic rugby in Wales for the next four years outraged the controller of BBC Wales. In a face-to-face public confrontation with S4C's chief executive, he accused the Welsh fourth channel of having taken deliberate steps to jeopardise the relationship with the BBC. He could not understand why S4C was willing to pay for programmes they had previously been getting for free. For his part the Chief Executive stood firm, arguing that S4C had saved Welsh club rugby from disappearing into Sky.

But it was not just the Controller who had an emotional spasm. On the day of the press conference to announce the awarding of the contract, knee-jerk S4C-knocker, Dr Kim Howells, 51, of Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan, loomed on the screens of Welsh television to denounce the deal. He was irate that a public service broadcaster such as S4C should be involved in bidding for a commercial contract. It went beyond their remit to defend the Welsh language and was a case as The Western Mail reported his comments of S4C playing fast-and-loose with taxpayers' money. Such was the good doctor's ire that he insisted that S4C's subsidy should be stopped.

Conveniently Dr Howells did not criticise Wales's other public service broadcaster, BBC Wales, for putting forward a competing bid for the contract. You would have expected a convert to free market economics to have been equally scathing of both public service corporations. But after all, what would his friends have said? What is more interesting in this episode is the increasing commercial confidence of S4C. The recent success of the Welsh-language channel, especially its winning of space on digital television, threatens to change the whole ecology of Welsh broadcasting. Certainly it has enhanced the clout of S4C at the expense of both BBC and HTV. What does this mean for the channel? Is there a danger of losing sight of its cultural mission in favour of commercial success...?