Time to change channel’s bosses
THE campaign to bring Channel 4 to Birmingham has been a very positive one, showing what a good move it would be for the broadcaster and the viewer as well as for the creative industries and wider economy in the region.
West Midlands mayor Andy Street has been leading the charge and making overtures to both Government and the channel’s executives over many months.
There are few, if any, in Birmingham who would argue it would be bad for the city. So the emphasis has been on selling the benefits to the broadcaster and viewers nationwide.
Moving away from the London centric scene might make a difference to what appears on our screens, make it more representative of the country as a whole and allow more voices from the region to make their way in television without having to move. These are all good arguments.
Other businesses, most notably HSBC, have seen the benefit of moving, not least for their bottom lines. Channel 4 could do a lot more with the same money in Birmingham. But even more compelling is the scandalous fact that just one per cent of UK TV production funding is spent in the Midlands. Not Birmingham, not the West Midlands, but the wider Midlands, the region which includes Nottingham, Derby, Worcester and Stoke-on-Trent, gets just one hundredth of the nations £2 billion TV money.
Two-thirds is of course spent in London and large amounts go to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and smaller amounts to other English regions.
But the Midlanders, who have a combined population larger than Scotland, pay their licence fees and their share of taxes so should demand a fair share of the public investment in broadcasting.
The resistance is being felt most from the Channel 4 executives and creative industry leaders some of whom regard English regional cities like Birmingham as cultural and economic backwaters.
Last year the chief executive of the broadcasting industry umbrella group PACT, John McVay, told The Guardian that he opposes ‘lifting and shifting’ Channel 4 to another city.
He said: “The danger if you have it in Birmingham is everyone spends their time on the train.
“Plonking an office of people in Brum and suddenly they become Brum by osmosis – I don’t think that works.”
But a headquarters in Birmingham makes a statement that the doors are open to regional producers.
The industry stats show that this is clearly not the case now.
The government rightly took the first steps along this path with manifesto pledge and the recent consultation.
They have tried to lead or coax Channel 4 towards the move.
But there is speculation that there could be a wobble and the result will be a compromise which allows executives to sit in the capital while offering a few crumbs for the regions.
But perhaps the Government should take sterner action as MP Steve McCabe suggests.
If the channel’s bosses are so wedded to their London boardroom perhaps they should be replaced by someone with more imagination. Someone who doesn’t think everything of interest stops at Watford.
A headquarters in Birmingham makes a statement that the doors are open to regional producers