A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION
the means of production as people who did
not ordinarily see themselves on television…
would be given an opportunity to make
programmes and have their experience
represented on national television. It was
quite revolutionary in broadcast terms.” Why,
she reflected, “did no one else apart from
Channel 4 trust us to do this?” 167
Channel 4’s original constitutional
arrangements and funding model also gave
it the space to be inventive and different.
Operating as a subsidiary of the broadcasting
regulator, it was funded by the ITV network,
which paid it a subscription in return for
selling its advertising. This arrangement
liberated Channel 4 from the demands of
commercial competition and allowed it huge
creative freedom.
It was inevitable that some of the
experimentalism and risk of the early,
freewheeling days would dissipate after
1993, when Channel 4 became commercially
independent as a public corporation that
sold its own advertising. 168 It had to operate
in an increasingly competitive marketplace
as the multichannel landscape started to
take shape. This was always going to put
a strain on the programming mix, and to
be likely to take it in a more commercial
direction. In the 1990s it came to depend on
US drama imports and Brookside 169 ; in the
2000s, leisure-based factual programming
dominated the schedules. Channel 4 became
hugely dependent on the revenue generated
by the reality show Big Brother, a programme
that became a liability after the Celebrity
Big Brother racism row in 2007. 170 Since
Big Brother ended in 2010, Channel 4 has
achieved a better balance in the schedule,
although the main channel’s ratings have
fallen. 171
Channel 4’s more commercially focused
programming has allowed it to make the
programmes that more obviously fulfil its
remit, as well as to meet the terms of its
main channel’s licence, under which it is
required to produce a certain amount of
news and current affairs programmes and
satisfy various production quotas in return
for its prominent position on the electronic
programme guide (EPG). 172 Meanwhile, the
remit has evolved since the channel was
founded. The obligation to cater for tastes
and minority interests not served by ITV was
dropped following the 2003 Communications
Act. 173 Instead, the act stated that Channel
4 must provide a range of “high quality
and diverse” programming, with output
demonstrating innovation, experiment and
creativity; appeal to a culturally diverse
society; contribute to education; and exhibit a
distinctive character. 174 It was given additional
new media responsibilities, including
appealing to the tastes and interests of older
children and young adults, in the 2010 Digital
Economy Act. 175
167
Margo Harkin, comments to Inquiry event in Coleraine, April 4, 2016.
168
For five years after that, it continued to be linked to ITV: it had to pay ITV a portion of its advertising revenues in return for ITV providing it with a
safety net should it fall into deficit, an arrangement that proved very favourable to ITV.
169
US sitcoms and dramas, films (mostly of US origin), and Brookside between them accounted for half of viewing in 1997. Brown, A Licence to Be
Different, p. 207.
170
Brown, A Licence to Be Different, pp. 1-9.
171
From 6.1% of the audience in 2010 to 4.8% in 2014. See Ofcom, Communications Market Report 2015, 2015, figure 2.59, p. 201.
172
Channel 4 is required to broadcast 208 hours per year or 4 hours per week of news (all in peak), and 208 hours per year or 4 hours per week of
current affairs (80 in peak), while 56% of programmes (70% in peak) should be originally produced or commissioned, 35% of hours and expenditure
should be devoted to programmes made outside the M25, with an additional requirement for 3% of programmes to be made outside England, rising
to 9% from 2020. See the licence on the Ofcom website.
173
Brown, A Licence to Be Different, p. 275.
174
Communications Act 2003, section 265.
175
Digital Economy Act 2010, section 22.
68