C4 enters negotiations with 6 cities for National HQ and Creative Hubs

23 July 2018

Channel 4 has today confirmed that it is to progress with advanced negotiations with six cities across the UK as part of the process to select its new National HQ and two new Creative Hubs.

The announcement follows the second stage of the pitch process over June and July in which teams from Channel 4, including Chief Executive Alex Mahon, Chief Commercial Officer Jonathan Allan and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Dan Brooke, visited 13 shortlisted cities and regions for presentations and discussions.

Advanced negotiations will now commence with three cities for the National HQ – and a further three cities for consideration as a Creative Hub only.

These cities are:

 

National HQ or Creative Hub	Creative Hub only
Birmingham	Bristol
Greater Manchester	Cardiff
Leeds	Glasgow

 

Each city was carefully assessed against Channel 4’s vision and objectives for the National HQ and Creative Hubs, which was set out as part of the pitch entry guidelines.  

Channel 4 will now enter into detailed discussions with the six selected cities over the summer, a process which will be led by Channel 4 Executive Board member and Chief Commercial Officer, Jonathan Allan.  The locations for the new National HQ and two Creative Hubs will be announced in the autumn.

Jonathan Allan said: “Our visits to the 13 shortlisted cities over the last month were incredibly inspiring and I’d like to thank all of those involved for the huge amounts of creativity they demonstrated and the excitement for Channel 4 and what we could achieve together.

“We have again had to take some very difficult decisions on which cities to take forward to the next stage, but we believe the six cities we have selected are best able to deliver against our vision and requirements for the new National HQ and Creative Hubs.

“The National HQ and Creative Hubs are only one part of our ‘4 All the UK’ plan, which has at its heart, a commitment to significantly increase our Nations and Regions contend spend by £250 million over the next five years. We therefore look forward to working closely with all those cities and regions that have been involved in the pitch process, as we look to catalyse that spend and support digital and production companies right across the UK.”

 

-ENDS-

 

Notes to editors:

Channel 4 announced its 4 All the UK plan in March 2018 – a strategy to ensure that Channel 4 serves the whole of the UK and the biggest change to the structure of the organisation in its 35-year history.

At the heart of the strategy is a major new commitment from Channel 4 to significantly increase its Nations & Regions content spend from its current quota of 35% to a new voluntary target of 50% by 2023.

This will result in a cumulative boost of over £250m in Channel 4's Nations & Regions commissioning spend – which will benefit all parts of the UK. It reflects both external analysis and feedback from the industry that increasing spend would have the greatest impact on regional economies and jobs.

To support and catalyse this spend across the UK, Channel 4 will move to a multi-site operating model, establishing a new National HQ and two new smaller Creative Hubs in the Nations & Regions in 2019 – home to jobs from across the business including key creative decision makers.

When this strategy is fully implemented, 300 Channel 4 jobs will be based in the Nations and Regions and the intention is to grow this further over time.

The first round pitch process for the National HQ and Creative Hubs was launched by Chief Executive, Alex Mahon in April where cities and regions were asked to provide written submissions, outlining the strengths of the city or region and how it could meet Channel 4’s vision for the National HQ or Creative Hub – as set out as part of the pitch entry guidelines.

Over 30 submissions were received in this first round from across the UK.  These were reviewed and assessed by Channel 4 and a shortlist for the National HQ and Creative Hubs was agreed by Alex Mahon, Chief Commercial Officer Jonathan Allan, and the Channel 4 Executive team.  

The 13 cities originally shortlisted were:

National HQ or Creative Hub	Creative Hub only
Bristol	Belfast
Cardiff	Brighton
Glasgow	Newcastle-Gateshead
Greater Manchester	Nottingham
Leeds	Sheffield
Liverpool	Stoke-on-Trent
West Midlands