S4C2

S4C Dau
Launched	September 1999
Closed	6 December 2010
Owned by	S4C
Country	Wales, United Kingdom
Sister channel(s)	S4C
Availability (Prior to closure)
Terrestrial
Freeview	Channel 86 (Wales only)
Satellite
Freesat	Channel 202 (Wales only)
Sky	Channel 507
Astra 2A	11307H 27500 2/3
Cable
Virgin Media	Channel 168

S4C Dau (Welsh: Sianel Pedwar Cymru Dau, meaning Channel Four Wales Two) was a free-to-air British television station owned by S4C which, until 2010, broadcast coverage of the National Assembly for Wales at the Senedd. It was also used for extended coverage of events shown on the main S4C service, such as the National Eisteddfod of Wales and Royal Welsh Show.

When the UK government was planning digital terrestrial television in the late 1990s, each of the existing analogue broadcasters were allocated half a multiplex of capacity each. Each multiplex has capacity to carry multiple television stations. As one of the existing analogue broadcasters, S4C were allocated half of multiplex A and decided to use their gifted capacity to broadcast two stations in Wales; S4C Digidol, a partial simulcast of their analogue television station and S4C2, a new service. Outside of Wales, they opted to sell their capacity to pay-TV broadcaster ONdigital to use for their service, meaning that S4C2 was only broadcast from transmitters located within Wales.

The channel initially broadcast all proceedings from the National Assembly for Wales, live and uninterrupted. As the Assembly is bilingual, with members allowed to speak in either English or Welsh, the service carried two audio feeds on Freeview and satellite; an untranslated feed that broadcast proceedings in their original language (be it English or Welsh) and an English feed where any Welsh speech was voiced-over live into English. The channel was described by S4C as a 'unique partnership' between themselves as the broadcaster and BBC Wales as the service provider. As such, the costs of producing the Assembly output were funded by BBC Wales, while the costs of distribution were met by S4C. S4C did not receive additional funding from the government to cover the costs of running the service, and couldn't divert public money intended to fund content for its main channel, as S4C2 was neither classed as a public service channel, nor was there any obligation for S4C to run such a service. As such, S4C's costs for the channel was funded from commercial revenues and the channel itself was operated through a commercial subsidiary of S4C, S4C2 Ltd., who held the broadcast licence.