Channel 4 unveils public service 'blueprint'
Channel 4 is setting up a £50m fund to support public service digital media content over the next two years and has promised to show more new programmes in peak time than any other public service broadcaster.
Andy Duncan, the Channel 4 chief executive, today announced the creation of the 4 Innovation for the Public fund as he unveiled the Next on 4 statement of promises, a clear attempt by the broadcaster to make its case for retaining its public service status in the digital age.
Designed to "kick start a wave of new investment in public service digital media for audiences around Britain" the £50m 4IP fund will launch in July as a collaboration between Channel 4 and a series of development and media agencies from around the UK.
This forms part of the Next on 4 strategy, which includes a commitment to broadcast more new programmes in peak time than any other public service broadcaster.
Channel 4 also today pledged to broadcast the equivalent of at least one new documentary in peak time each weekday - a minimum of 260 hours across the year.
The Next on 4 "blueprint"is the culmination of an internal review that included consultation with staff, creative and commercial partners and the government, as well as extensive audience research including a YouGov survey of 11,000 Channel 4 viewers and users.
The broadcaster will also introduce a New Talent Month in 2008 and has promised to commit £10m annually to support a range of schemes through 4Talent.
Channel 4 is planning to increase its annual spend on news, allowing a continued expansion of news online and on radio. A further £10m a year is to be ring-fenced for investment British film-making, with Film4 committing a "significant proportion" of its spend to development, short films and low-budget features.
The broadcaster intends to spend an initial £10m on a major pilot fund for cross-platform projects from 2008 and invest £6m a year in educational multimedia content for teenagers.
Channel 4 will also appoint a new head of diversity and assign a commissioning editor with specific responsibility for multicultural programmes, with a ring-fenced budget and slots at 9pm and 10pm.
In addition the broadcaster has announced a commitment to increase the proportion of its spend on original commissions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by 50% by 2012.
The Channel 4 chairman, Luke Johnson, today also called on the government to agree new forms of funding support for the broadcaster to replace the gifted analogue spectrum it currently receives, which he said will be valueless by the time digital switchover is completed in 2012.
"It [new public support] must be delivered in a form that gives Channel 4 long-term financial stability and preserves its independence from editorial interference," Johnson added.
"This is the moment for absolutely clarity - we believe Channel 4's ability to invest in greater creative risk would not survive a transfer into private ownership, which is why the board unanimously rejects the option of privatisation. It is Channel 4's independence, from shareholders as much from government, that permits its distinctiveness."
Duncan added: "This strategic blueprint is a milestone for Channel 4. Channel 4 is an idea that has worked brilliantly in TV for the last 25 years. We're very excited by the challenge of demonstrating it can potentially work even more powerfully in new digital media, adding a bold new dimension to our ability to deliver our public purposes."
Ben Dowell
Thursday March 13 2008
guardian.co.uk
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
Channel 4 is setting up a £50m fund to support public service digital media content over the next two years and has promised to show more new programmes in peak time than any other public service broadcaster.
Andy Duncan, the Channel 4 chief executive, today announced the creation of the 4 Innovation for the Public fund as he unveiled the Next on 4 statement of promises, a clear attempt by the broadcaster to make its case for retaining its public service status in the digital age.
Designed to "kick start a wave of new investment in public service digital media for audiences around Britain" the £50m 4IP fund will launch in July as a collaboration between Channel 4 and a series of development and media agencies from around the UK.
This forms part of the Next on 4 strategy, which includes a commitment to broadcast more new programmes in peak time than any other public service broadcaster.
Channel 4 also today pledged to broadcast the equivalent of at least one new documentary in peak time each weekday - a minimum of 260 hours across the year.
The Next on 4 "blueprint"is the culmination of an internal review that included consultation with staff, creative and commercial partners and the government, as well as extensive audience research including a YouGov survey of 11,000 Channel 4 viewers and users.
The broadcaster will also introduce a New Talent Month in 2008 and has promised to commit £10m annually to support a range of schemes through 4Talent.
Channel 4 is planning to increase its annual spend on news, allowing a continued expansion of news online and on radio. A further £10m a year is to be ring-fenced for investment British film-making, with Film4 committing a "significant proportion" of its spend to development, short films and low-budget features.
The broadcaster intends to spend an initial £10m on a major pilot fund for cross-platform projects from 2008 and invest £6m a year in educational multimedia content for teenagers.
Channel 4 will also appoint a new head of diversity and assign a commissioning editor with specific responsibility for multicultural programmes, with a ring-fenced budget and slots at 9pm and 10pm.
In addition the broadcaster has announced a commitment to increase the proportion of its spend on original commissions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by 50% by 2012.
The Channel 4 chairman, Luke Johnson, today also called on the government to agree new forms of funding support for the broadcaster to replace the gifted analogue spectrum it currently receives, which he said will be valueless by the time digital switchover is completed in 2012.
"It [new public support] must be delivered in a form that gives Channel 4 long-term financial stability and preserves its independence from editorial interference," Johnson added.
"This is the moment for absolutely clarity - we believe Channel 4's ability to invest in greater creative risk would not survive a transfer into private ownership, which is why the board unanimously rejects the option of privatisation. It is Channel 4's independence, from shareholders as much from government, that permits its distinctiveness."
Duncan added: "This strategic blueprint is a milestone for Channel 4. Channel 4 is an idea that has worked brilliantly in TV for the last 25 years. We're very excited by the challenge of demonstrating it can potentially work even more powerfully in new digital media, adding a bold new dimension to our ability to deliver our public purposes."
Ben Dowell
Thursday March 13 2008
guardian.co.uk
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
