Channel 4 facing £100m funding gap, warns Ofcom chief
Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards will today warn that Channel 4 is confronting an annual funding gap of up to £100 million by 2012.
The media regulator’s chief is to deliver a speech to the Royal Television Society tonight, in which he will back claims from Channel 4 bosses that the broadcaster will face the funding shortfall due to increased competition from digital media with the analogue TV switch-off in 2012.
Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan said: “We’re very encouraged that Ofcom now broadly accepts our forecasts on the size and urgency of our funding gap and agrees that identifying a new funding mechanism for Channel 4 is a pressing priority.”
In his speech tonight, Richards is expected to say that for Channel 4 to break even, it will need to cut its investment in public service content each year until 2012.
He is also likely to suggest that ITV and Five could be free of public service broadcasting obligations by 2014.
Also from The Stage
- Ofcom go-ahead to halve ITV regional non-news
- Channel 4 reaches 'tipping point' chairman warns
- European Commission to investigate legality of Channel 4's £14m government grant
- Channel 4 to spend 10m on children's content
- Channel 4 fined by Ofcom for viewer competition misconduct
- C4 to simulcast shows on broadband
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