Channel 4 announces creative overhaul

Valerie | 27 Aug 2009, 10:20

As we bid farewell to Big Brother – the long running show that turned reality TV into a global phenomenon, the final series of which will be broadcast next year – Channel 4 has indicated it will use the axing as an opportunity for the biggest creative overhaul in its 25-year history.

The Guardian reports that with up to 200 hours of peak-time airtime to fill from 2011 on the main network and digital entertainment service E4, the broadcaster will now focus on an overhaul of the programming lineup and a refocus on its public service broadcasting remit, including allocating an extra £20m a year for other TV genres such as drama.

Channel 4’s director of television and content Kevin Lygo said of the decision:

“Big Brother is still profitable for C4 despite its reduced popularity, and there could have been the option to renew it on more favourable terms. That’s what a purely commercial broadcaster would have done, but C4 has a public remit to champion new forms of creativity.”

The Channel 4 announcement comes as senior industry figures from the international television and media industry gather later this week to discuss the future of the sector at the annual Edinburgh Television festival. Issues to be discussed range from finding ways to generate new sources of revenue to the future of public service broadcasting and what opportunities are available for programme makers, channels and brands amidst technological advances and in the current economic climate.

The recession has hit advertising revenues hard, which has fallen steadily from a 2005 peak of £3.85 billion, according to Deloitte’s annual ‘state of the industry’ report. With the decline for 2009 expected to be as much as 17 percent year on year, broadcasters are being forced to re-evaluate their priorities.

Endemol’s chief executive and c&binet ambassador Tim Hincks sees the recession as a trigger to “start thinking slightly bigger picture and about the issues that are swirling round”.  Speaking to the Guardian earlier this week, he said:

“We are feeling the pressure and feeling the pinch. There’s no question that broadcasters’ budgets are down and we are making more for less.

“People are literally thinking about survival and looking for help and looking for ideas”.