[James]

From The Times
September 24, 2008

Cash-strapped Channel 4 to cut staff and concentrate on repeats

Dan Sabbagh, Media Editor

Channel 4 is to cut 15 per cent of its workforce, screen more repeats and cut serious programming in favour of lightweight reality programmes such as Big Brother as it tries to head off losses caused by an advertising collapse.

The broadcaster said that it would slash £100 million from its costs - cutting back on current affairs, serious factual programmes and possibly dramas in the rest of this year and in 2009.

The cuts are a reaction to the credit crunch, which has pushed advertising booking down since the summer. Of the savings, £50 million will come from the broadcaster's £600 million programming budget this year and next.

Andy Duncan, chief executive of the state-owned broadcaster, said: "Our objective as a public organisation is to operate at break-even with the maximum creative investment. With revenues falling, we have no alternative but to cut costs."

Channel 4 will abandon showing new programmes on Saturday nights - usually a home for science, history or other serious programmes giving an alternative to The X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing.

It will also stop commissioning expensive serious programmes on other nights, shows such as Kevin McCloud and the Big Town Plan, a four-part series about the regeneration of Castleford, a run-down former mining town in West Yorkshire. Taking seven years to film, the programme won an audience share of 4 per cent, less than half Channel 4's average.

Meanwhile, its most popular shows, such as Big Brother, Hollyoaks and Deal or No Deal, will not be affected as they generate a disproportionate share of its profit. Channel 4 News and Dispatches, the flagship current affairs programme, will also be protected....

Full article - http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle4813305.ece