Channel 4: One of our teams will not move to north

CHANNEL 4 has decided not to relocate one of its teams to the new national headquarters in Leeds as had been planned.

The broadcaster confirmed the continuity team will not be coming to Yorkshire ahead of its move into the Majestic building later this year but said it had “not impacted the overall scale” of its commitment to the region and still planned to have 300 jobs based outside London.

Media publication Broadcast reported that it understood the plans to re-home the continuity team, which is responsible for producing and voicing the airtime in between shows, “dropped the plans due to reliability concerns”.

Continuity announcers introduce the next programme on a television station but can also keep viewers posted in the event of emergencies.

The team was planned to be a permanent feature of the Leeds base when the broadcaster moves into the former Majestic nightclub in City Square later this year.

Details of how many staff were due to relocate have not been confirmed by the broadcaster.

A Channel 4 spokesman said: “The 4 All The UK strategy represents the biggest shake-up in Channel 4’s 37-year history with our new bases in Leeds, Bristol and Glasgow opening on target last year.

“We decided not to relocate the continuity team to Leeds. However this has not impacted the overall scale of our commitment and we will have 300 jobs based outside London when fully operational.”

Channel 4 will be based in the £40m seven-storey Majestic office block, which was a cinema and later a nightclub.

It is due to be completed in May after which the fit-out of Channel 4’s top three floors will begin.

The Majestic opened as a 2,400-seat cinema in 1922 and has been redesigned and reconfigured to create 66,000 sq ft of office accommodation.