C4 chiefs accused of ‘chumocracy’
Amid fury at privatisation plan, how the channel set up to innovate is now a sad mix of f lops and repeats
CHANNEL 4 has been accused of running a chumocracy that lines the pockets of wealthy London-based production companies while insisting it supports small, regional businesses.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that big winners from the broadcaster’s £510million annual programming budget are multi-millionaire television executives Stephen Lambert and Peter Fincham, whose firms make a significant number of shows for the network.
Mr Lambert’s company, Studio Lambert, has sold more than 25 programmes to Channel 4 over recent years, including The Circle, a reality show based on social media axed due to poor viewing figures. He is understood to be worth more than £5million, with offices in Central London’s Soho and Los Angeles. Mr Fincham, formerly director of programming at ITV, was handed a lucrative commission to make the little-watched daytime show Steph’s Packed Lunch, which is filmed in Leeds, although his company, Expectation, is based in West London’s trendy Notting Hill.
The Mail on Sunday understands that C4’s chief content officer Ian Katz has spent time on Mr Lambert’s yacht. The channel’s boss, Alex Mahon,
‘It wouldn’t be so bad if the shows were successful, but so few are’
has publicly spoken about the ‘incredible support’ she received from Mr Fincham after he recruited her to work for TV company Talkback Thames in the early 2000s. Mr Fincham has in turn said of Ms Mahon: ‘She is not just the hardest worker in the class, but also the brightest.’
A source told the MoS: ‘The channel’s bosses pretend they are all about supporting small, regional, independent production companies but that simply isn’t true. It wouldn’t be so bad if the shows were successful, but so few are.’
However, a spokesman for the channel insists its ‘commitment to the UK creative industries has included significant investments in the smaller production companies outside London’.
Last week the Government announced plans to privatise the channel to help it compete with streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon. The decision comes after years of clashes between the Government and broadcaster, as well as suffering low ratings. Only two C4 programmes featured in the 100 most-watched terrestrial shows on in the last week of March: Gogglebox and a Bake Off special in aid of Stand Up To Cancer.
Channel 4 was set up in 1982, and at the time its purpose was ‘to create change through entertainment’.
And as for its claims to be ‘innovative’, its current schedule suggests otherwise. Every weekday morning last week, repeats of US sitcoms Cheers, Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond were followed by re-runs of Gordon Ramsay’s American series Kitchen Nightmares.
Over the years, programming choices been criticised, with concern about shows such as Me And My Penis, Dogging Tales and My First Threesome. In the 1990s, the screening of Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps And Their Johns prompted the Daily Mail to describe the channel’s then boss, Michael Grade – who last week was named the new head of media regulator Ofcom – as ‘Britain’s Pornographer-in-Chief.’
C4 has been publicly owned since 1982 and is funded by advertising.
Ms Mahon has a salary of £991,000 – more than double that of the BBC director-general. Staff blame her, along with former Guardian journalist Mr Katz, for the failure to provide innovative programming. They also enjoy telling an anecdote – which she denies – of her describing Mr Katz as her ‘one mistake’ which ‘everyone is allowed’.
Sources say that C4’s bosses are ‘desperate’ to keep their lucrative jobs and have made their own proposal to Ms Dorries to partner with private investors to spend £200million a year on films and shows as an alternative to privatisation.
Last night a spokesman said: ‘Channel 4 is in robust health, both in terms of its much-loved content and its financial position. Its unique operating model also means that Channel 4 does not cost the public anything and all its profits are reinvested in its programmes and digital platforms.’