The Daily Telegraph - Features
Channel 4 is unravelling thanks to ‘clueless’ execs and no big hits
Budgets and staff are being cut, talent is departing – and the Russell Brand questions still linger. Can the ‘alternative’ broadcaster survive?
As media heavyweights descended on London’s Victoria and Albert museum to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Channel 4 in November 2022, the atmosphere was so celebratory that a serving cabinet minister led a rendition of “Happy Birthday”.
Now, less than 18 months after that glitzy party – with the bosses of the BBC, ITV and Sky toasting their rival’s longevity – like many 40-somethings, Channel 4 has fallen into a midlife crisis that imperils its future.
Having successfully fought a rearguard action to avoid being privatised by a Tory government with which it is often in conflict, a slump in advertising revenues has left the state-owned, commercially funded broadcaster exposed – and fearing a different peril. Budgets are being squeezed, many new commissions have been put on hold and some 240 staff, about 15 per cent of the workforce, are to be made redundant.
Meanwhile, the independent production companies on which Channel 4 depends for its programmes are in revolt, while staff morale is at an all-time low. All of which has conspired to give Alex Mahon, the long-serving chief executive, an almighty headache.
When Channel 4 was set up by Margaret Thatcher’s first government, it was committed to provide an alternative to the duopoly of the BBC and ITV. Early hits included the words-and– numbers quiz show Countdown,
Phil Redmond’s soap opera Brookside and Anneka Rice’s madcap game show Treasure Hunt. There were prestige dramas, too, such as Alan Bleasdale’s GBH,
and a host of quality documentaries and arts programmes, such as the Cutting Edge and Without Walls strands.
Later on, it broke the mould for early morning television with The Big Breakfast and became the first British broadcaster to take a punt on Big Brother, based on the Dutch reality format.
Things looked rosy just a year ago. Last summer, Channel 4 announced that in 2022, it had posted revenues of £1.14billion and invested a record £713million in British content. Mahon, who has been chief executive since 2017, was paid a record £1.5million for achieving her bonus targets. By contrast, the BBC director-general Tim Davie is paid about one-third of that.
There is a sense that those results, which cover the year when ministers unsuccessfully tried to sell Channel 4, did not reflect the reality it was facing. The decline in the advertising market by about 15 per cent notwithstanding, Channel 4 has suffered more than the likes of ITV and Channel 5. And the reason why will make hard reading for Mahon: not enough of the broadcaster’s output has been able to find substantial audiences.
While rivals such as the BBC and ITV have in recent months attracted huge audiences with The Traitors and Mr Bates vs the Post Office, respectively, Channel 4 has struggled to generate new hits of its own. Recent flops include Alice & Jack, a drama starring Hollywood actors Andrea Riseborough and Domnhall Gleeson, live lunchtime show
Steph’s Packed Lunch, The Lateish Show With Mo Gilligan and Rise and Fall, the Greg James-fronted reality show that was meant to be its answer to The Traitors.
Many of the channel’s biggest continuing programmes – such as Grand Designs, Gogglebox and 8 out of 10 Cats – were commissioned under former programme chiefs Kevin Lygo, who is now head of entertainment at ITV, and Jay Hunt, currently creative director in Europe for Apple TV+. Two of the biggest, The Great British Bake Off and Taskmaster, were poached at great expense from other broadcasters. Channel 4’s biggest recent successes have been Big Boys, Jack Rooke’s criticallyacclaimed university sitcom, and the Claudia Winkleman-fronted
The Piano, which has been credited in an uptake in people playing musical instruments and been renewed for another season.
“They are more exposed than anyone to the advertising market,”
says Tom Harrington, head of TV at the media consultancy Enders Analysis, with commercials providing about two-thirds of Channel 4’s income. Much of the surplus it boasted of having less than two years ago has been spent – including £17million on staff retention bonuses. “It was clear the market was going to get more difficult,” Harrington adds. “Ironically, now they are letting a lot of those people go.” Among the highly-regarded commissioners to have departed in recent weeks are head of factual Alf Lawrie, Caroline Hollick, the Leeds-based drama chief who brought I Am Ruth and It’s a Sin to the broadcaster, and head of youth and digital, Karl Warner.
Much of the ire has been heaped on the heads of Mahon and Ian Katz, the former Guardian deputy editor who she appointed chief content officer shortly after her arrival. “Cash issues aside, advertising slowdown aside, pivot to digital aside, the leadership in terms of decision-making is a complete and utter s--- show,” says the boss of one large production company who frequently works with Channel 4. “What you need as a channel is hits to attract people to you and after they come to you for one thing they stay with you and watch another.”
The senior executive offers a gloomy prognosis. “In the short-term, changing the leadership needs to happen. In the long-term, we think about how Channel 4 survives.”
Katz, 56, is often described in media circles as not being able to consistently build an audience, especially around entertainment programmes after commissioning It’s a Sin. “They are in a cultural and creative chasm that you can’t really see out of,” says the boss of a rival broadcaster.
Those outside the broadcaster reckon that its most senior figures have spent more time on the question of ownership than the content it puts out. “Everyone was obsessed with what was happening with privatisation,” says a former board member. “They just seem to be clueless about the programming. They are looking pretty doomed unless they smarten up.”
Senior Channel 4 sources insist that the broadcaster is in ruder health than many in the industry think. They point to the fact that Married at First Sight is a huge streaming hit, The Jury: Murder Trial was its biggest new format launch in 10 years since Benefits Street, Film4 won six Oscars this month and about 30 per cent of its revenues come from its digital platform – more than any other comparable channel in the world. Channel 4 occupies a unique space in British broadcasting. Though it is owned by the state, it is not taxpayer funded, and its remit is not to make a profit but to help independent, often small, production companies thrive. That has changed in the past 18 months, as Channel 4 has altered payment terms so that production companies are increasingly asked to fund their own programmes upfront, and will only get paid after shows are broadcast. Many producers complain that the broadcaster is “sitting” on completed shows so that it does not have to pay out sooner. Channel 4 bosses acknowledge they have a “big rebuilding job to do” to get back in producers’ good books, but that other broadcasters have also slowed commissioning.
“It has been tough going, and we don’t see any quick fix, even if the ad market recovers,” says John McVay, chief executive of the producers’ trade body Pact. “We are not sure when Channel 4 will get back to ‘business as usual’.”
The first signs of struggle came last spring, when the broadcaster abruptly cancelled a reboot of Four Weddings, the former reality series created by Sky. The producers, MultiStory Media, were said to be “blindsided” by the move, which came at late notice. The production slowdown also means that Lisa McGee, creator of Derry Girls, has moved her new comedy thriller, How to Get to Heaven From Belfast, from Channel 4 to Netflix.
Richard Osman, the former
Pointless host, who helped create
Deal or No Deal, recently expressed his concerns about Channel 4’s future on his podcast,
The Rest is Entertainment. By his telling, Channel 4 is not getting the basics right. “They don’t have a hit quiz, which is crazy. Every channel has a hit quiz,” Osman said. “Hit quizzes are actually quite easy to do, because people love quizzes. You get a great format, you get a host people like and boom, you’re done. BBC Two’s biggest shows are House of Games, Only Connect and University Challenge. They don’t cost anything at all.”
He added: “People love them and they can make hundreds and hundreds of episodes. That’s the sort of thing you need on a channel to bring people day-in, day-out. A simple thing like that and they don’t have it.”
Channel 4 also faces questions over its handling of a complaint of a “worrying and serious” allegation against Russell Brand. One of the women who complained about the comedian, a former employee, told The Sunday Times at the weekend that the broadcaster’s own investigation into the case was “shambolic”, “disempowering” and a “whitewash”.
Channel 4 said in response to the claims: “We remain committed to establishing the fullest possible picture of what happened, helping ensure we have an industry that does not tolerate inappropriate behaviour and listening to the people who have bravely come forward.”
Amidst it all, rumours continue to swirl around the media industry that Mahon is looking for a new job after seven years at the helm. She was said to be in the running to become boss of French designer label Chloé – she is already on the board of Chanel – but did not end up getting the job.
MPs on the Commons culture committee asked Mahon about the rumours when she appeared before them in November. “I will stay as long as I’m relevant to the business,” she said. “I don’t think anyone is relevant to the Channel 4 business forever though.”
How much longer she remains relevant is anyone’s guess.
‘They are in a cultural and creative chasm that you can’t really see out of ’