There’s a lot of points to wade through which could fill a small book, but in the last couple of days, Channel 4, the clearly misunderstood problem child of British broadcasting, has been having one of its occasional moans.
First, outgoing chief executive Andy Duncan had a little cry in front of a House of Lords communication committee about how the BBC hadn’t done very much for Channel 4 lately, saying:
“When you look at their income, which in absolute terms is very high and in relative terms is unbelievable now - the billion-pound gap between the licence fee and commercial revenues - I’m disappointed they have not managed to develop some of these partnerships more successfully as an organisation,”
And then we have head of programming Julian Bellamy bigging up Channel 4, basically implying that Channel 4 is fantastic and that everybody else in British broadcasting is just a bit rubbish, believing that:
“Broadcasters look sideways and backwards for inspiration, anywhere but forwards. Television as a whole is becoming more averse to deliberate acts of cultural provocation, at confronting the consensus with new, non-conformist ideas,”
He also maintains that Channel 4, which recently broadcast Age Eight and Wanting a Sex Change and some episodes of How to Look Good Naked and a Hollyoaks omnibus, is central to “intelligent provocation” within the country’s cultural landscape.
I do think there are some pertinent points to be had in what both Duncan and Bellamy are saying, but it always comes over in a petulant, foot-stamping way.
Duncan, for example, is very quick to point fingers everywhere but Channel 4 at failures to create partnerships. He says very little on just what Channel 4 has brought to the table in building new relationships, which I’d be very interested in hearing. It seems the BBC is expected to ride in on a white charger and save Channel 4, and I’m curious as to what efforts Duncan and his staff have gone to themselves to make this happen.
And Bellamy’s comments about his rival’s lack of risk-taking in commissioning would be easier to take if his channel hadn’t relied on the increasingly tedious Big Brother for years as its big ratings winner, and keeps commissioning the hugely overrated Shameless as its prime drama output. Yes, there has been some excellent one-off and limited run dramas - The Devil’s Whore springs to mind. But Channel 4’s record in commissioning new, ongoing drama has been pretty dismal. Anybody remember Goldplated? Of course you don’t, nobody watched it.
And banging on about how canning Big Brother after the next series has freed up gazillions of pounds for new commissions is no good at the moment. It’s a step in the right direction, but let’s come back in two years time and see how that’s worked out for them.
Of course, we know the BBC is an organisation that is in need of radical reform, big changes are required across ITVs commercial business model, and honestly, does anybody care about Sky beyond football and Stargate: Atlantis fans?
But it’s best to get your own house in order before lobbing the grenades into your rivals’ camps - it’s the quickest way to exposing your own weaknesses for everybody to point and laugh at.
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