Edie Lush

Channel 4 heads closer to the edge

Edie Lush says competition from digital channels and the internet imperils the financial viability of Britain’s most provocative television broadcaster

How much do you hate Big Brother? A lot perhaps; but enough to welcome the demise of Channel 4? This is a real possibility: an Ofcom report due in a few days time will detail just how precarious Channel 4’s finances are becoming. While the report’s contents are still unknown, the challenges C4 faces are not.

C4 has produced some of the nation’s favourite programming, including Channel 4 News and Film4 hits such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Trainspotting. It has also produced programmes such as Celebrity Big Brother, which have grabbed headlines but horrified the chattering classes. In a bid to avoid more of the same, C4 recently cancelled a series celebrating ‘wank week’ and featuring last year’s ‘London Masturbate-a-thon’.

C4 defends itself by pointing to its public service remit. It was created in 1981 as a public corporation subsidised by the provision of free ‘analogue spectrum’ — free wavelength over which to broadcast — in order to provide an alternative to the BBC and the ITV network. It was funded initially by a levy on the ITV companies but later by its own commercial revenues. C4’s charter challenges it to demonstrate ‘innovation, experiment and creativity …appeal to the tastes and interest of a culturally diverse society and …exhibit a distinctive character’. Asked how that applies to Big Brother, C4 chief executive Andy Duncan says, ‘We still believe it’s an interesting format which somewhat defies categorisation. Besides having entertainment value, it also reflects what goes on in society at large, some of which can make for uncomfortable viewing.’

Thus C4 prides itself on being ‘edgy’ in the new sense of the word — but its finances are heading perilously close to the edge in the older sense. Last year it made an estimated pre-tax surplus of £20 million, less than a third of the £67 million it managed in 2005.

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