Channel 4 News ‘ will not use ex- club as its base’
CHANNEL 4 News will not be coanchored from the former Majestic nightclub in Leeds when the programme is jointly presented from Yorkshire, a leader at the broadcaster has said.
As part of the station’s operations in the city, where it launched a year ago, it had previously committed to part of its news show being broadcast from the region.
However, this will not take place at the Majestic, the flagship building on City Square that Channel 4 employees are due to move into from 2021.
In an interview with The Yorkshire Post, the broadcaster’s managing director of nations and regions, Sinéad Rocks, said other locations were being considered.
She said: “It definitely won’t be in the Majestic and that’s to do with space and the weight of equipment and our desire to actually get more staff in.
“Also, we’re wanting to find a studio space that has really good views that look out over something that really feels like you’re seeing Leeds from it.
“It’s ITN who are our news provider and I know that they were looking at a lot of buildings just before lockdown.
“I haven’t heard an update – I wonder if it’s just become slightly more difficult to look at real estate in the current climate. But the commitment to having Channel 4 News regularly co- anchored from Leeds is absolutely still there.”
The Majestic, also known as the Majestyk, is a former cinema and nightclub which was gutted by a fire in 2014.
Ms Rocks spoke as the broadcaster marked its first year in Leeds by unveiling 4Skills, a new programme of measure to address skills shortages outside London.
She praised the “brilliant part
nerships” that had been developed between Channel 4 and Screen Yorkshire, Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership and other broadcasters locally.
Ms Rocks said: “We know collectively that when we work together we can achieve much more and we also know that there is little point in us duplicating effort and, actually, if we share our plans and then put our energies into the bits that are missing, we seem to get better results.
“There is a very big sense of collaboration when it comes to training and skills here in Yorkshire and that’s a great model for us to try and replicate in the other parts of the country that we’re in.”
She said the pandemic had brought an overnight change in how the broadcaster works.
“There was a little bit of resistance to that just because the technology was very nascent and it was a bit of a pain for people to get their heads round,” she said.