Channel 4 Indie Growth Fund appoints new Head

1 April 2019

Channel 4 today announced that Caroline Murphy has been appointed Head of the Indie Growth Fund to lead the team who invest in independent TV production companies across the UK.  She will take up the role in April and transfer to Leeds as Channel 4 opens its new offices in the Autumn.

Caroline will report into the Indie Growth Fund Advisory Board, Chaired by Channel 4 Director of Commercial Affairs, Martin Baker, and manage the £20m fund which was set up to help provide access to funding for independent production companies to grow and develop their businesses.

Caroline has over 20 years of experience in the media industry in a variety of senior strategy and business development roles. These include Senior Adviser in the BBC’s corporate strategy team and SVP of Commercial Development at BBC Studios where she was responsible for developing and rolling out the BBC’s international channels business.  Most recently she was Global Director of Strategy and M&A at Fremantle Media where she was responsible for a significant number of investments in Indies and digital content companies. In this role, Caroline was also a Board member on a number of UK start-up Indies in which Fremantle held a stake

Martin Baker, Channel 4 Director of Commercial Affairs, said: “I am looking forward to welcoming Caroline to Channel 4.  She is an accomplished commercial director and her recent expertise in leading deals and acquisitions in international media markets will be invaluable as the Indie Growth Fund continues to work with its current portfolio and invests in exciting production companies across the nations and regions.”

Caroline Murphy said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Channel 4 and I am much looking forward to working closely with the Indies already supported by the Growth Fund, as well as with new Indies as we seek to expand the breadth and diversity of our portfolio across the UK."

The Indie Growth Fund was launched in 2014 to provide additional support to the UK independent creative sector by providing access to funding for indies based in the UK to help them to grow and develop their business. It has made 15 investments to date and there are now 10 companies in the portfolio including Barcroft Media Group, Eleven Film, Firecrest Films, Lightbox Media, Parable, Spelthorne Community Television, The RightsXchange (TRX), Two Rivers Media, Voltage TV and Whisper Films. Its future strategy is focused on investing in companies in the Nations and Regions, but will also encompass interesting digital and diverse businesses across the UK.

 

About Channel 4:

Channel 4 is a publicly-owned yet commercially-funded public service broadcaster and has a remit to be innovative, experimental and distinctive. Its public ownership and not-for-profit status ensure all profit generated by its commercial activity is directly reinvested back into the delivery of its public service remit. As a publisher-broadcaster, Channel 4 is also required to commission UK content from the independent production sector and currently works with around 300 creative companies across the UK every year. In addition to the main Channel 4 service, its portfolio includes: E4, More4, Film4, 4Music, 4seven, Channel4.com and digital service All 4.