Edinburgh: Channel 4 promises more documentaries as part of public service commitment

Posted by Colin Crummy on 24 August 2007 at 16:06
Tags: Channel 4, Dispatches, Edinburgh 2007, Edinburgh International Television Festival

Channel 4 is to overhaul its schedules - investing in documentaries and educational programming, and moving a raft of factual entertainment programmes to its digital offshoots or off the channel altogether.

Kevin Lygo, Channel 4’s director of television and content, said in a speech at the Edinburgh International TV Festival, that the broadcaster would clear the schedule of ratings hits such as Celebrity Big Brother – its highest rating programme on the channel - to make way for programmes that would better serve its public service remit.

The move is part of a range of initiatives launched by Channel 4 from today [Friday 24 August] to refocus the broadcaster’s public service remit after a tumultuous year of criticism on its output.

“These are non-commercial decisions - if we wanted to take the easy path we’d recommission all of these shows - we’d probably do two series of Celebrity Big Brother if ratings were all we’re after. No - these are the decisions of a public service broadcaster in search of the new and the exciting.”

In the 9pm slot, only one popular factual programme will return, Grand Designs.

“I’m not a psychopath, I’m not going to cut everything,” quipped Lygo. Shows like Celebrity Big Brother will be rested and others axed.

Lygo said this would inevitably mean a fall in ratings. “We are prepared for this and strongly believe it is the right thing to do. Much better to be an interesting channel at 8 per cent than a less interesting one at 10 per cent.”

He reiterated the broadcaster’s commitment to news and current affairs through its public service ethos and said its news programmes scheduled in peak time “offer greater analysis than competitor bulletins on other channels and tackle subject matter, particularly international affairs, that other channels devote less time to.”

“The point is that we are determined to open up space for argument,” he added.

Lygos also underlined his support for the Dispatches programme Undercover Mosque which is under investigation by Ofcom for alleged distortion of viewpoints within the edition.

Lygos said it was “a fantastic piece of first rate journalism which has been completely vindicated”.

Channel 4 is currently seeking more than £100 million of public money and if it didn’t get public service money, Lygo said the first thing to go would be serious investigative journalism – news and current affairs programming.

“It would be a different channel and not nearly as interesting,” he said.

Tags: Channel 4, Dispatches, Edinburgh 2007, Edinburgh International Television Festival