BBC Wales (known in Welsh as BBC Cymru) is the Welsh division of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Although based in and around Cardiff, it also operates from other sites in Wales, including one at Aberystwyth University. It operates the Welsh regional variants of BBC One and BBC Two. However, the bulk of its employees are concerned with the production of new content.
As sole producer
BBC Wales makes television programmes in both the English and Welsh languages. It is the largest BBC production centre outside London. Some of what the channel has produced has been for consumption throughout the whole of the UK, but much of it is only broadcast within Wales.
During late 1997 and into early 1998, the BBC and Paramount finalised a deal for Doctor Who to be co-owned by the two. Within these talks, it was agreed for the show to move production location from London to Cardiff which resulted in the show being produced by BBC Wales. It became the production base for the show whilst continuing production from where it left off in London. However, the deal caused a delay in production which affected the broadcast of Season 35 where it didn't air until November.
After the success of BBC Wales' production of the programme, it later produced spin-offs such as: Leftover, Rebel Zero and Panopticon whilst also being a part of filming for the motion pictures.
This heavy output of material related to the Whoniverse prompted the largest expansion of production facilities in the division's history. In 2006, BBC Wales leased a site at Upper Boat in Pontypridd, where they constructed studio space entirely dedicated to the production of the Doctor Who television series and its movies as well as its spin-offs. Called simply "BBC Studios", the site is ten times as large as the rest of BBC Wales' studio space in Cardiff and the largest studio complex in Wales. In 2012, BBC Wales' studio space moved to Roath Lock, in the Cardiff Bay area. The last production to come from Upper Boat was the seventh and final series of spin-off Panopticon.
For Season 49, co-showrunner Ronald D. Moore decided to move production of Doctor Who to Scotland due to the wider range of locations it could offer, and while Wales did offer some to the same extent, most had been exhausted by 2011 (when Season 48 aired, also the last season of Chapter Three) due to the show's frequent usage of them.
BBC Wales' last involvement with the Doctor Who franchise was for the main production of Doctor Who: Genesis in 2013 where BBC Scotland took over from 2014 onwards.