Whats this Channel4 ?

Revenue

C4 has a relatively simple organisational structure, it is a private limited company with no share-holders. Management is by a board of 13-15 members. Half the board members are 'non-executive', these members (including the C4 chairman) are appointed by  Ofcom and approved by Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport. Non-executive directors are responsible for making sure C4 keeps to its remit. The rest of the board are C4 'executive directors' responsible for the day-to-day running of the station.

Turnover for the C4 group in 2006 was £937 million (£894m in 2005). Revenue from advertising and sponsorship made up  £820m of this, 87.5% of the group's income. C4 has approximately a 30% share of all terrestrial TV advertising revenue, despite having an average 9.8% share of the audience (C4's whole portfolio of channels has a 12.1% audience share).

Transmission and Sales, which includes programme making, cost £881millon.

Administration, which includes staff salaries, cost £36.6m. Channel 4 employs 813 permanent staff and a further 104 staff on short-term contracts.

• C4 spent £510m on 8,760 hours of programmes

• £383m was spent on 5.482 hours of original programming

• £325m was spent on 4,367 hours of programmes commissioned from independents

• £127m was spent on 3,278 hours of acquired programmes

C4 has had to make the difficult transition from the simple world of analogue broadcasting financed by 'spot' advertising and sponsorship. Initially C4 moved to a mix of digital services funded by subscription. It has now abandoned subscription services in favour of 'free to air' digital broadcating via freeview and broadband. C4's digital channels now generate 26% of its revenue.

For the next few years it is likely that C4 will remain 'in the red', but between 2007 and 2012 all broadcasting will become digital, when this happens it seems inevitable that C4's advertising revenue will fall. It is predicted that there will then be a £100 million deficit in C4's annual finances. Some of this shortfall may be reduced by sharing digital broadcasting costs with the BBC. The whole Independent sector suffered from a 5% reduction in advertising revenue in 2006 and C4's profits fell by 70%.

There is also a possibility that Ofcom will allow some of the TV licence fee revenue to go to C4 in order to help pay for its Public Service Broadcasting role. The details of some of these financial arrangements are to be found in Ofcom's review of Public Service Broadcasting. Other developments include the launch of three brand-new national digital radio stations from July 2008 onwards: E4 Radio, Channel 4 Radio and Pure4.

The whole C4 group made an after-tax profit of £14.5m (down from £48.5m in 2005). The main TV station C4, made a pre-tax profit of £22m (£80m in 2005).

The C4 group is chiefly made up of a number of divisions and subsidiaries, these include:

• C4 (the terrestrial broadcaster)
• 4Channels (the digital channels)
• New Media (run C4's web and interactive services)
• 4Rights (exploit C4 's copyrighted material)

'4Channels' - consists of:

• E4
• More4
• Film4
• 4Radio
• 4oD

The C4 group also owns substantial shares in a number of subsidiary companies, including:

• 4 Ventures
• Channel 4 International
• Film Four
• Oneword Radio
• Popworld

Top of page

Links

C4 Annual Report 2006

www.channel4.com/annualreport2006

Ofcom C4 Financial Review

www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/psb_review/c4review/

Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party web sites.

Top of page