A senior BBC Cymru Wales executive has warned MPs the broadcaster does not have the money to make the content it is currently producing.

Rhys Evans said that without reform to the licence fee, the organisation had faced an "inevitable path of continued and managed decline".

The chief executive of Welsh language broadcaster S4C, Geraint Evans, said the future of broadcasting in Welsh was in "jeopardy" with resources stretched as the channel delivered programming on social media as well as television.

The TV licence fee – which funds BBC Cymru Wales and most of S4C – is currently up for review with ministers saying they were considering new funding models.

A senior ITV manager told the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons the BBC needed a "more sustainable funding model".

The committee's MPs are "examining the challenges and opportunities" facing the broadcasting sector in Wales.

In an evidence hearing on Wednesday, BBC executives said they were looking at savings of £9m with 50 posts being cut.

Evans, head of corporate affairs at BBC Cymru Wales, said: "There will be in all likelihood not just for BBC Cymru Wales but for the rest of the BBC additional savings in 2028 and 2029.

"Unless there is future licence fee reform then we are all set on that inevitable path of continued and managed decline."

He said that while he believed "BBC Cymru Wales is here to stay", he was "not so confident about the type of content that we presently produce and distribute so effectively, because we just don't have the money for it".

S4C's Evans told MPs he had welcomed a recent comment from the Welsh Secretary Stephen Kinnock calling for "sufficient funding" for S4C.

But he added: "What does sufficient funding mean and for what purpose?

Evans said S4C now had to serve "numerous platforms", not just television, and included social media and YouTube, to help serve younger audiences.

"And that takes more money," he said.

"S4C will need at the very least the same funding that we have now, with inflationary increases, for a significant period to come.

Evans compared the challenges with those faced by Welsh language campaigners in the past, saying: "I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say at this moment in time, it's as crucial a time for S4C as it was when people campaigned for the channel."

"Without sufficient funding the future of S4C and Welsh language broadcasting is in jeopardy," he added.

ITV's director of strategy, Magnus Brooke, agreed there needed to be "a more sustainable funding model for the BBC".

But he said that the "mechanics for that were a political question".

The UK government, which controls broadcasting and communications, had published a consultation document – a green paper - asking the public for their views about several funding options, including the possibility of allowing adverts on the BBC.

Another option being considered is a "top-up subscription service", which would offer premium content.

The current licence fee, which costs £174.50 annually, could also be replaced with a different set of rates depending on which of the broadcaster's services people use.

The consultation is part of the renewal of the BBC charter - the corporation's rulebook and licence to exist - which expires in 2027.

With fewer people paying the licence fee, the BBC will make savings of about £500m ahead of the renewal of the charter in 2028.

S4C was first broadcast on 1 November 1982 following a long campaign by Welsh language activists.

Both the Conservative and Labour parties had promised a Welsh-language fourth channel in their manifestoes for the 1979 general election.

However, shortly after Margaret Thatcher's Tories won a majority, the then-home secretary William Whitelaw decided against the plan, instead suggesting an occasional opt-out in Welsh.

S4C was granted parliamentary approval after activists attacked television transmitters in Welsh-speaking heartlands of Wales, and former Plaid Cymru president Gwynfor Evans threatened a hunger strike.