launched a new blog to offer blow-by-blow coverage of the inquiry into the UK’s involvement in the Iraq war – with a focus on deeper analysis of the proceedings which have started this week.
The blog will be written anonymously by ‘a Channel 4 News reporter with a deep interest and thorough knowledge of intelligence and security matters’
We hope that it will reveal the surprising and often hidden stories behind the headlines. This is the first iteration of an ongoing process to develop this tool to be rich in content and functionality and over time build the biggest network of connections in the UK.
the broadcaster's original, commissioned programmes will be added to the site in the coming months, plus 3,000 hours of archived shows.
Programmes will be seen in full and free-of-charge, but the service will be supported by advertising.
So YouTube now has one of the four key UK broadcasters’ names to wave in negotiations with the other four, a real platform from which to negotiate for content that would make it a real TV VOD destination.
was a fervent champion of public service media. Endlessly enthusiastic, he eschewed the hierarchical message of suits and ties and sat at an open plan desk as he encouraged colleagues to help realise his vision for Channel 4's multimedia feature.
wider dreams for Channel 4 began to unravel as plans for Channel 4 Radio and an adventure into magazine publishing had to be shelved. There were also numerous programming scandals which, although the channel claimed they fulfilled its remit for making challenging shows, also prompted questions over the suitability of the broadcaster's leadership.
difficult year, with Channel 4's fut-ure the focus of constant debate as part of the Digital Britain process. It was thought the advertising-funded, state-owned broadcaster would solve its financial shortfall, self-confessed as likely to hit £150m a year by 2012, by forming a joint venture with the BBC's commercial arm.
According to a survey of 1,512 people aged between 15 to 54 conducted by the firm, 75% of respondents indicated a desire to view internet content on their television screens.
I can see that there is a point to its existence for all of the people who work for it in that big shiny building in Horseferry Road. But I'm struggling to work out what's in it for the rest of us.
It claims a public service element, but I'm a member of the public and I haven't been served by it for years.
If it goes off air, the old test card could be shown in its place. That would provide more of a public service than the existing Channel 4.
any proposed merger with Five does not address the need for structural change in the UK TV industry.
“Consolidation could only be part of the solution if it takes place within a new industry structure – and only after that structure is in place,”
“Even then, if the subject is Five, the limited and short-term cost savings would largely be swallowed by offsetting Five’s increasing losses and Channel 4’s contribution to public service broadcasting would diminish.
“The future must be about maximising the value of our content.”
It is not just a question of television – it is also about how the strengths and characteristics of traditional television can be translated into the new digital world of online and on-demand.adding that tinkering around with the system is not the way forward
Now is the time to think big. The government has a matchless opportunity to create an entity able to deliver new public service content in new ways
Channel 4 and Five share many characteristics. Both are funded by advertising, both commission programmes from outside producers rather than making them in-house and both are reliant on a mix of home-grown and acquired programming. A merger that brings together two such complementary broadcasters would create a much stronger operator
Having offended so many people in one fell swoop, who can they book for the
Christmas Day 2009 slot who will offend even more people? Assuming Osama bin
Laden’s agent still isn’t passing on messages, who can they get? Peter
Sutcliffe, perhaps?
C4 suffered a year-on-year adult audience decline of 3.8 per cent in 2008 - down 7.0 per cent for ABC1 adults and down 7.4 per cent for 16-to-34s. The channel has also seen its own audience's age profile change - the 16-to-34 group has dropped to 26.9 per cent of viewers, a 4.0 per cent decrease year on year.
Channel 4 has also seen a drop in its daily average reach, to 15.4 million, a decrease of 5.8 per cent. Its most high-profile and commercially lucrative programme, Big Brother, this summer suffered its worst ever figures, averaging three million viewers and recording a 14.9 per cent audience share, down 0.6 million and 2.3 per cent on last year's show
Channel 4 is under no illusions about the scale of its decline, appealing to the government for an annual £150m subsidy to ensure its survival
A sale would mark the end of an era for one of Britain's most controversial organisations; if the government auctioned it off, it would almost certainly be snapped up by a rival, and its remit to make provocative programming - and keep the BBC on its toes - could be lost.
Commercial radio groups have been reluctant to invest further in the platform because, despite encouraging takeup of digital audio broadcasting (DAB) radio sets, they have been unable to make it pay.
There is now only one national commercial digital station not already available on analogue, Planet Rock.
In a long-awaited judgment following a 15-month inquiry, Ofcom is expected to censure the network over its treatment of some scientists in the programme, The Great Global Warming Swindle, which sparked outcry from environmentalists.says the paper
The broadcaster has held preliminary talks with both Ofcom and ITV over the matter, which could see Channel 4 invest funds in regional news services and infrastructure.
Channel 4 is considering the move after becoming concerned that ITV's retreat from regional news could affect its own coverage of the nations and regions.
Channel 4 fears politicians may not agree to any new PSB settlement that does not safeguard regional news provision.
The move into regional output would also bolster Channel 4's public service credentials and safeguard the quality of its national news programming, as well as boosting its case to Ofcom for extra funding
Audience fragmentation is playing havoc with advertising revenues. The global economy is of increasing concern. But most important of all is the looming digital switchover, with its potentially terminal implications for Channel 4's public service role, and associated subsidies.
"In one sense we are non-profit, but in another we are aggressively commercial. My typical day straddles the divide."
The question is how much we can afford to spend next year, and how much should be spent on Channel 4 itself, how much on digital, and how much on the 4OD on-demand service."
Presenter and former fashion model Alexa Chung who sets out to uncover what conditions are really like in some of the Indian factories that supply the UK's leading budget clothes retailer, Primark. And to find out what life is really like for those making our bargain clothes, Alexa sets up her own fashion "sweat shop" in London's West End staffed by 15 volunteer members of the public, all budget fashion-lovers.
This was C4 as a public service broadcasting (PSB) beacon. If it was also designed to banish memories of a year that began with the Big Brother race row and ended with a fine from Ofcom over premium phone line abuse, by and large it worked.adding that
the 110-page Next on 4 document read like an Ofcom checklist. Richards' organisation has long been concerned with how to deliver public service content to fragmenting audiences in a digital world, particularly younger viewers turning their backs on traditional channels
Channel 4's ambitious plans to move into digital radio were largely ignored last week at its glitzy presentationand speculates that digital radio could now be a problem for the channel
I think ITV is in terrible trouble. It's very funny, Michael Grade stood up last week and said, 'the strategy is working', and no-one said, 'well, why did you just sack your programme director [Simon Shaps] then?' It's clearly not working. Look at the share price! Talk about shareholder value! It's 65p today and it was 110p when Michael went there."and of the Beeb
He has issues too with the way the BBC is run, claiming the BBC Trust is a "fudge".
"It was clear to me it was going to be incredibly bureaucratic and I still don't think it works. I don't think it will ever work and if you talk to some fairly senior people at the BBC now they've all realised it doesn't work because it's too bureaucratic. There, that'll upset them."
In the past five years, Iraq has never stopped being the most important international news story and the biggest challenge for news organisations and journalists from all over the world. Yet at the same time, our ability to report what must be the most consequential war of the past 30 years has been eroded, to the point where journalists, however large and well-funded their news organisation, can only try to provide a snapshot of the war's impact on Iraqi society.
the BBC, having gloried in Channel 4's difficulties, ignored its moment of triumph. That would be bad enough, but there is another possible explanation that is worse. Has the BBC borrowed the Government's new habit of deliberately not associating Muslims by name with any questionable behaviour? It is all right to pillory Channel 4, but wrong – because it may upset Muslim leaders – to draw attention to imams spouting illiberal nonsense. Incidentally, the Saudi Arabian government complained about the programme not only to Ofcom but also to the Foreign Office. Isn't that rather sinister?
