Channel 4
CEO David Abraham on why C4 is now truer to its spirit than when it had Big Brother.
The Media Show · BBC Radio 4
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Show Notes
In its Annual Report this week, Channel 4 has announced higher than ever investment in original programmes and a loss of £29m. This was for 2012 which featured successes like the Paralympics coverage, which won a Bafta on Sunday. While C4 has hit many of its own financial targets, it has fallen short of its target for share (the proportion of available audience watching its programmes). Chief Executive David Abraham tells Steve where the money has been spent, what changes viewers can expect for 2013 and why he and his Chief Creative Officer Jay Hunt were paid £615k and £506k last year, respectively, plus benefits.
On a day that also sees new figures out on ITV's performance, Lisa Campbell, editor of Broadcast magazine, looks at the advertising market and what commercial broadcasters are doing to reduce their reliance on advertising.
And there is a news and commentary website, The Conversation, launching in the UK tomorrow after a start in Australia. It is written by academics and edited by journalists and aims to address some of the problems that arise when the media covers academic research. Andrew Jaspan is the former newspaper editor behind it and he joins Steve in the studio.
Presenter: Steve Hewlett Producer: Simon Tillotson
Editor: Andrew Smith.