The boss of the broadcast regulator has expressed concern about how the chase for audience ratings is harming the industry
Television has become more “exploitative and cruel”, according to Michael Grade, the chair of the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom.
“The exploitation dial has been switched up more and more for ratings,” said the peer and former chair of the BBC board. “It makes me mad. I really don’t like it or enjoy it.
Continue reading...Stories include man with bruise in shape of Prince Harry and statue of H from Steps being erected in Wales
The comedian Joe Lycett has disclosed the fake stories that he successfully planted in the British media over the past month included a man with a bruise in the shape of Prince Harry and a statue of H from Steps being erected in his home town of Cowbridge in Wales.
In the first episode of his new Channel 4 show, Lycett said four stories that were covered by newspapers and television news were fabricated.
Continue reading...Alex Mahon says former staff member made ‘serious’ allegation in 2009 that was not ‘investigated as it should have been’
The head of Channel 4 has apologised to a former staff member for the organisation not properly investigating a “serious” allegation made against Russell Brand in 2009.
However, the broadcaster found “no evidence” that staff at Channel 4 knew about the accusations made by four women in a Dispatches documentary before it was aired in September.
Continue reading...It’s no joke for new shows as classic favourites live on while investment in sitcoms and sketches falters
There is a quip beloved of comedians, when asked if their industry is going down the pan: “Nostalgia? It ain’t what it used to be.”
But for fans of well-worn jokes, and the shows in which they appear, 2024 could be truly a golden era.
Continue reading...Chair says government-approved appointments lag behind broadcaster’s diversity targets
A row has broken out over the lack of ethnic diversity among Channel 4’s new board members, as the broadcaster’s chair criticised the government’s decision to appoint four white directors.
The culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, approved the appointments on Monday of five new non-executive directors to join the Channel 4 board and they were announced by the UK’s media regulator Ofcom.
Continue reading...Exclusive: As many as 200 roles could go as firm seeks to accelerate digital streaming strategy and limit cuts to content budget
Channel 4 is drawing up plans to cut potentially as many as 200 jobs in its biggest round of layoffs in more than 15 years, as it seeks to make savings to weather the worst TV advertising downturn since 2008.
The broadcaster, which has undergone a rapid expansion in recent years with staff numbers swelling to a record level of more than 1,200, aims to dramatically reduce a wage bill that now stands at more than £108m a year.
Continue reading...Hunterian had listed stillborn child of African descent as viewable for medical research but removed it after criticism from author
The remains of a stillborn Bambuti baby have been removed from a museum’s catalogue of items that can be viewed for medical research after criticism from a Booker prize-shortlisted author.
Novelist Nadifa Mohamed is the presenter of an upcoming Channel 4 documentary examining the history of “human zoos” in Britain, in which African and Asian people were put on display to the wider public in a practice which is now deemed to have been deeply racist.
Britain’s Human Zoos is on Channel 4 on Saturday 28 October
Continue reading...Claims related to seven-year period are detailed in Times and Channel 4 investigation after actor had already denied allegations
Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse over a seven-year period at the height of his fame.
The allegations between 2006 and 2013 were the result of a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4 Dispatches. Brand denies the allegations.
Continue reading...News of death of Anne and David Spencer confirmed by co-presenter of long-running Channel 4 series, Kirsty Allsopp
The parents of TV presenter Phil Spencer have been killed in a car accident near their home, his co-star, Kirstie Allsopp, has confirmed.
Location, Location, Location presenter Allsopp told fans to join her in “sending so much love” to costar Spencer, following the death of his mother, Anne, and father, David, on Friday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Channel 4 film says officials contacted the palace in 2020 owing to concerns about Lord Lebedev’s father’s links to Putin regime
Government officials asked whether the late Queen would block Evgeny Lebedev’s peerage because of concerns that he could be a national security risk due to his father’s links to the Putin regime, a documentary has claimed.
The aides contacted Buckingham Palace in July 2020 to request that the monarch intervene, which she was constitutionally entitled to do, after Boris Johnson decided to press ahead with the controversial peerage despite warnings from the intelligence agencies, according to the film-makers.
Continue reading...Chris McCausland says Channel 4 show gave him the experience of ‘being the most able’ competitor
It has recently been called one of television’s most ridiculous reality shows. But the new Channel 4 series Scared of the Dark will help audiences understand sight loss, a contestant has said.
The blind comedian Chris McCausland is one of eight famous faces who stepped out of the spotlight and into a pitch-black bunker for eight days for the experiment, hosted by Danny Dyer. It will show how they cope with the pressures of light deprivation and humanity’s primal fear of the dark.
It’s a Knockout, BBC One, 1966 Giant obstacle-based physical series that spawned a Europe-wide and royal version.
Touch the Truck, Channel 5, 2001 Dale Winton-fronted endurance show featured contestants holding on to a truck for the longest to win it.
Naked Jungle, Channel 5, 2000 A nudist Crystal Maze meets It’s a Knockout, fronted by Keith Chegwin.
Shafted, ITV, 2001 Robert Kilroy-Silk’s ill-fated show created TV’s most infamous catchphrase, “to share or to shaft”.
Celebrity Shark Bait, ITV, 2005 Richard E Grant and Ruby Wax were among the stars locked in a metal cage in shark-infested waters.
Hole in the Wall, BBC One, 2008 Teams of celebrities tried to jump through shapes in a moving wall.
Heads or Tails, Channel 5, 2009 Justin Lee Collins oversaw contestants flipping a coin to try to win £1m.
Don’t Scare the Hare, BBC One, 2011 Contestants carried out a mad series of challenges against a giant robotic hare.
That Puppet Game Show, BBC One, 2013 The Muppets’ short-lived move into gameshows.
The Jump, C4, 2014 Insurance nightmare celebrity ski jump show created 34 casualties.
Flockstars, ITV, 2015 Celebrities attempt sheepdog trials.
Wild Things, Sky One, 2015 Couples dressed as animals competed on a woodland obstacle course.
Apocalypse Wow, ITV2, 2021 Gladiators meets BDSM.
Naked, Alone and Racing to Get Home, Channel 4, 2023 Race Across the World in the buff.
Continue reading...Prime minister urges public to judge him on whether he delivers on new pledges but Labour says most ‘were happening anyway’. This blog is now closed
Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, has issued a statement welcoming the government’s proposal to abandon the privatisation of Channel (without actually putting it in those terms). She says the government should never have floated the plan in the first place, and that it has been a “total distraction” for the broadcaster. She says:
The Conservatives’ vendetta against Channel 4 was always wrong for Britain, growth in our creative economy, and a complete waste of everyone’s time.
Our broadcasting and creative industries lead the world, yet this government has hamstrung them for the last year with the total distraction of Channel 4 privatisation.
Continue reading...Ofcom reviews longstanding rules that allow pay-TV companies more ad minutes than public service rivals
The pay-TV provider Sky could lose as much as £150m a year in TV advertising revenue from proposals aimed at enabling the UK’s biggest free-to-air broadcasters to make more money and better compete with streaming services.
The broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, is reviewing historical rules that restrict the UK’s public service broadcasters (PSBs) – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – from running as many minutes of advertising on their main channels as rivals such as Sky are allowed.
Continue reading...A Place in the Sun and Escape to the Country host hopes he can inspire others to ‘make the most of every day’
The TV presenter Jonnie Irwin has revealed he has terminal cancer, saying he hopes sharing his diagnosis will inspire others to “make the most of every day”.
The 48-year-old, who presents Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun and the BBC’s Escape to the Country, said he had lung cancer that had spread to his brain, and that he did not know how much time he had left to live.
Continue reading...Ian Katz says new show, Art Trouble, celebrates the channel’s tradition of ‘iconoclasm and irreverence’
Channel 4 has bought a painting by Adolf Hitler and will allow a studio audience to decide whether Jimmy Carr should burn it with a flamethrower.
As part of its latest season of programmes, the TV channel has bought artworks by a range of “problematic” artists, including Pablo Picasso, as well as convicted paedophile Rolf Harris and sexual abuser Eric Gill.
Continue reading...Report suggested Dyson was complicit in abuse and exploitation at Malaysia factory, claim inventor’s lawyers
The billionaire businessman James Dyson is attempting to sue Channel 4 over a news report about claims of abuse and exploitation in the Malaysia factory of a former supplier to his firm.
The lead story on Channel 4 News on 10 February suggested Dyson, second on this year’s Sunday Times UK rich list, was complicit in the practices at the ATA-owned factory, the inventor’s lawyer told the high court in London on Thursday.
Continue reading...Documentary reveals how Britain was not only involved in rape and torture but tried to suppress evidence
A former police commissioner resigned after attempts to expose rape and torture by British colonial forces in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising were covered up, a documentary shows.
During the 1950s, Britain fought a war in Kenya against the Mau Mau, a movement that fought for independence from colonial rule. The movement was brutally suppressed through the use of widespread detention camps and systemic violence.
Continue reading...Tory MPs are ambivalent on the issue and there is uncertainty over what a caretaker government can do
Channel 4’s privatisation could be dropped by the next prime minister, with plans to sell the channel unlikely to be published before September.
Boris Johnson had already signed off on proposals to sell the publicly owned broadcaster, and the culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, had been preparing to push the law authorising the change through parliament in the autumn.
Continue reading...Analysis: why ministers are risking political capital pushing ahead now with privatisation plan is unclear
According to one key individual involved in the battle for Channel 4’s future, the broadcaster is a “wonderful company doing a fantastic job”, it is performing well financially and plays a crucial role in supporting the British television ecosystem.
Curiously, that individual is Stephen Parkinson, a government minister arguing that the only solution to secure Channel 4’s future is to rapidly privatise it and sell it off to a commercial owner, possibly one based overseas.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. You can find our latest stories on Channel 4 below:
DCMS select committee chair Julian Knight has questioned if the government’s plans to forge forward with the privatisation of Channel 4 are “revenge”, adding that many Tories believe the move is “payback time” for “biased coverage”.
Knight said Channel 4 could succeed if it was privatised and managed well, but it’s “a big risk” and “must be done as part of a thorough overhaul of all public service broadcasting”.
It is certainly true that Channel 4 will have greater freedom to compete once privatised and if managed well it should be able to continue to innovate and crucially appeal to young audiences - a real USP in today’s broadcast landscape.
However, this is a big risk. The question has to be, do you think a restricted but brilliant small state broadcaster will part compete with the likes of Apple and Amazon or does it need to be able to borrow and grow in a way only privatisation can unlock?
Continue reading...