Speech by Alex Mahon, Channel 4 Chief Executive, 16/05/18

16 May 2018

 

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Hello everyone and welcome. It is really good to see you all.

The reason we’ve brought you together is so Ian and I can update you on our plans for Channel 4.

I have been here six months now. It’s been a whirlwind and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s hard to imagine that anything would change my belief that I have the best job in television.

There is nowhere else where you are legally mandated to take risks.

It’s not a risk for me to take risks. It’s literally illegal for me not to.

Of course, since I started I've been assessing the challenges that Channel 4 faces.

Competition is more intense than ever and the old metric of linear share of viewing has declined in relevance, especially among younger audiences.

This is being offset by huge growth in video on demand viewing, where Netflix and Amazon are competitors of a kind we have not seen before.

Google and Facebook are competing hard for advertising revenue, even with their issues on brand safety, data and measurement.

And every platform is busy prioritising its own content.

But I’m convinced that Channel 4 is incredibly well placed to navigate these challenges.

We are the youngest skewing public service broadcaster in the world.

We deliver the most valuable commercial demographic and we punch well above our weight in digital.

Being innovative and agile is a great combination.

It’s why we’ve got a reputation with traditional rivals and new tech players as being a creative and commercial partner of choice.

Importantly, the television advertising market is holding up.

Of course it has been affected by political events, by Brexit. Everything has.

But when you have a national brand like Channel 4, you get to places that digital platforms cannot reach.

And, in this era of fake news, it’s vital that the Channel 4 brand remains as strong and trusted as it is.

Maybe in these times Channel 4 – a place for challenge and debate – is even more important to have than in 1982.

But, like everyone, we have to adapt.

We still believe in innovation, diversity and risk-taking. A Channel 4 without those things isn’t Channel 4 at all.

Three other themes run through what we will talk about today.

Super-charging our impact with young people

Accelerating digital

Our creative and inclusive culture

I’ll talk about these in in a moment but first let me welcome to the stage our Director of Programmes, Ian Katz.

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Thank you Ian.

I want to return now to youth, digital and culture.

As Ian says, we will be supercharging Channel 4’s impact with young people.

Our brands are strong with younger viewers but we have to do more.

Boosting E4, boosting comedy and building younger brands of scale in our peak time slots will help achieve that.

We want to be the best home for new talent again - on and off screen.

Ian showed how we’re opening up 10 and 11 o’clock for more experimentation, which will be a big part of this.

We will use All 4 as a runway for new talent too.

We will also tend to the industry’s grass roots, with more apprenticeships, more people coming to our 4Talent pop ups, and extending our partnerships with higher education. And all with a focus on social mobility.

We’ll be creating new jobs across the organisation in growth areas such as digital and technology.

And launching a new creative business, to drive growth in digital content and on social media. This will be based in our National HQ in the Nations & Regions.

This brings me neatly on to the second area – accelerating digital.

Before Channel 4 I ran a tech business and it is clear that we must rapidly accelerate our digital capabilities and our mindset.

We are increasing investment in All 4 substantially, to make it a better experience. This will be led by a new Chief Product Officer, who we will be appointing soon.

As Ian made clear, all commissioning will be done on the assumption that our programmes will be consumed both on linear channels and on demand.

That means understanding how our programmes are being watched. Overnights no longer tell us the full picture so we’ll soon be announcing a new way of assessing viewing across all platforms.

We will also be ramping up our partnerships and looking at content partners for All 4.

Our Commercial Growth Fund has already supported the growth of consumer businesses such as Eve, Readly and Jobtoday. We’ve done this innovatively, by taking equity stakes in return for advertising airtime.

These deals have generated strong returns and we will now be significantly scaling up the Fund’s investments in high potential digital businesses.

Lastly, I want to come on to our culture because it is something that makes Channel 4 strong and unique.

The culture of Channel 4 has a role in helping to usher in social change and at our best we have done that, especially around diversity.

On-screen, we will be finding more space for diverse and under-represented voices.

Off screen, diversity and inclusion should become paramount in our culture.

Channel 4 is already an industry leader. Ofcom’s first diversity report confirmed that we are the most diverse UK broadcaster.

But we have a lot more to do.

We still have to make our senior leadership more diverse and more representative.

And we still have to change the notion that the media is an exclusive club that most people cannot break into.

I see Channel 4 as somewhere the doors should be wide open.

Open to talent, and open to people regardless of their background or where they are from.

Our 4 All the UK plan, set out earlier this year, will change the culture of Channel 4 further still.

This is about regional representation on screen and making sure that people who want to work in this industry don’t need to move to London to do so.

Here’s a short video to remind you of what the key elements of the plan are.

 

[N&R VT]

 

There’s been a phenomenal amount of interest and we will soon be announcing a shortlist for the National HQ and creative hubs, with final locations decided in October.

Meanwhile, we will be opening up space in Horseferry Road for use by regional producers when doing business in London.

I can also announce today that we will be ready for stage 2 of the Indie Growth Fund. It will now invest primarily in the Nations and Regions, as part of our continuing strategy to support the growth of the production sector outside London.

The Fund will also invest in businesses that are BAME led or Digitally focused.

You will be pleased that it is my view that Channel 4 should not move to in-house production.

Instead we will be using our time with Ofcom and Government to argue for radical change in the rules around prominence for public service content on digital platforms. Currently there is none. In an era when democratic values are being eroded, that PSB prominence is even more important than ever and I very much hope we can count on your support for that.

There is a lot to do at Channel 4 but it is all building on the base we have already.

I want to end with some content as after all that’s what we’re here for!

One of the many amazing parts of Channel 4 is Film. Last week Director of Film4, Daniel Battsek, and his team were showing films in the Cannes Festival.

It’s been a incredible last 12 months for Film4 – winning 5 BAFTAs, 4 Golden Globes and two Oscars – for the superlative Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Film4 is a fantastic example of our Channel 4 model. The way that Film4 supported the likes of Steve McQueen and Martin McDonagh from their first outings to their Oscars is testament to that.

Two years ago we announced a boost to Film4’s funding so that it could back some bigger projects, whilst continuing to take risks on smaller films and new voices. Three Billboards was the first film to come out of that new strategy and I’m pleased that we’ll be continuing to support that level of investment in Film4 going forward.

To put that into context we fund around 12 movies a year, almost three times more than, say, BBC Films.

So, to finish, I wanted to show a short reel of some of the films we have in production – illustrating the huge diversity of work from Film4.

 

[Film 4 VT]

 

 

All this is a great reminder of what a phenomenal and vital creative force Channel 4 is.

Thank you for coming today.