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During the 1970s, Welsh-language activists had campaigned for a TV service in the language, which already had its own radio station, BBC Radio Cymru.

Both the Conservative and Labour parties promised a Welsh-language fourth channel, if elected to government in the 1979 General Election.

Shortly after the Conservatives won a majority in the election, the new home secretary William Whitelaw decided against a Welsh fourth channel, and suggested that, except for an occasional opt-out, the service should be the same as that offered in the rest of the UK.

This led to acts of civil disobedience, including refusals to pay the television licence fee, thereby running the risk of prosecution or even a prison sentence, and sit-ins in BBC and HTV studios.

Some took more extreme measures, including attacking television transmitters in Welsh-speaking areas.