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C4 as an Institution
The debate continues
Under former Chief Executive, Mark Thompson, C4 became in his own words: "a leaner, more focused, more modern organization." At C4, Thompson cut jobs and put more money into programme making. He went on to become Director General of the BBC, where he repeated this strategy on an even grander scale.
Some critics have said that C4 has now become more 'mainstream', abandoning both the lofty cultural ideals of Isaac's era and the 'storms' of the Grade era. Mark Thompson defended his policies as being part of C4's perpetual struggle to balance innovation and entertainment, minority enthusiasm and mainstream appeal.
"Channel 4 exists to do things first, to make trouble, to inspire change... The public wanted alternative entertainment, rather than an alternative to entertainment...
C4 wouldn't turn its back on the mainstream but would rather try to anticipate it. So that the defining archaeology series for Channel 4 would be not a traditional stiff documentary, but the informal, energized Time Team. The defining music show not a Top of the Pops clone, but The Tube. The defining comedy not a polished piece of Oxbridge humour, but Father Ted. All new, all different, yet not in the end niche programmes, but breakthroughs for everyone..."
Luke Johnson, the current C4 Chairman, inherited a Channel which had the highest profits and largest audience share in its history. Despite this apparently good fortune, Johnson pointed out that the forthcoming 'analogue switch-off' would soon leave C4 with falling advertising revenue and competing for audiences in a fragmented, multi-channel digital world. Just as he predicted, in 2006 C4's profits declined to £14 million, down from £57 million in 2005.
Channel 4 has also been widely criticized in the media for depending so heavily on 'Big Brother' for its revenue.
Is it time for C4 to return to its original non-commercial 'PSB' ethos in return for some direct public funding? Luke Johnson put the case this way in C4's 2006 Annual Report:
"...this magic formula, which has worked so well for 25 years, is starting to fade. The commercial television industry is under more competitive pressure than ever before. Last year we were the only terrestrial broadcaster to maintain our audience share, but despite this our financial surplus fell. In 2007 we will be unable to increase programme budgets in line with industry cost inflation, so inevitably our output will suffer somewhat. Digital switchover will see us lose our gifted analogue spectrum and much of our competitive advantage. In coming years we shall be forced to steadily reduce our output of public service broadcasting, and focus more and more of our schedule on strictly commercial shows, unless we receive help in kind. The one off, the quirky, the eccentric, the intellectual – all this material will disappear if nothing is done by Ofcom and the Government."
www.channel4.com/about4/annual report/annual reports/
In June 2007, Ofcom completed a financial review of Channel 4. In the report Ofcom agreed that C4 faced 'increased financial pressures in the medium-term' and whilst it concluded that 'further public support for Channel 4 should be ruled out for the foreseeable future,' the report did recommend that limited ‘safety net’ measures could be put in place if C4 was unable to operate within its remit. Ofcom is now monitoring Channel 4's financial performance and its public service delivery more carefully in case a 'safety net' is needed. It is, however, not Ofcom's role to make decisions about C4's future. This is a decision that the Government must take.
"We believe that it will be important for Government to make decisions about Channel 4’s future role in the context of a wider strategy for the delivery of PSB in a digital age"
