Ian Katz Says Channel 4 Has Been “More Honest” Than Rivals About Commissioning Slowdown – Edinburgh TV Festival

Max Goldbart
·3 min read
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Channel 4 has “perhaps been a bit more honest” than its rivals about the recent commissioning slowdown, according to programs boss Ian Katz, who said there has been a “perception” that his network’s financial picture is “more dramatic than elsewhere.”

Katz was grilled at the Edinburgh TV Festival about its heavily-reported commissioning slowdown and the exec said Channel 4 has “perhaps been a bit more honest” about financial woes than other broadcasters, all of whom he claimed have been impacted.

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He blamed the slowdown on the ad revenue slump, the U.S. strikes and “streamers pulling billions from their budgets” and said that much of the press around Channel 4 canceling shows due to its own financial picture is “not true” but was due to the natural cycle.

“The commissioning slowdown has hit the whole industry and every commercial broadcaster has been affected by the ad revenue slump,” he said. “Other broadcasters have chosen to communicate with suppliers whichever way they choose but I think that has led to the percetion that the picture at Channel 4 has been more dramatic than elsewhere.”

Beyond the UK’s shores, Katz said we could be “heading towards a reset that sees lower levels of production globally” due to Wall Street’s lost confidence in the streamers.

Katz’s comments came a day after the programs boss of main rival ITV said he would not be dropping its program budget during the slowdown.

“I hear Channel 4 shut the gates or something but we are not doing that,” Kevin Lygo said during his spotlight session.

Earlier this year, Channel 4 was criticized by portions of the indie sector for passing on financial pain to producers, including the high-profile cancelation of a Four Weddings reboot. The pressure led Katz and CEO Alex Mahon to defer their retention bonuses, although their pay still soared to record highs last year.

Katz said commissioning will return in greater volume later this year but stressed Channel 4 has to operate sustainably. “We can commission at pace as soon as ad revenue starts to come through but in order to do that we have to behave responsibly,” he said. “That is how we have worked through multiple ad recessions and we have always come back.”

He acknowledged “the feelings of indies,” given that the production sector came in to bat for Channel 4 during the privatisation period, which was eventually canned. Avalon boss Jon Thoday yesterday described the decision to give Channel 4 in-house production powers as “appalling.”

“The reality is we didn’t ask for in-house,” added Katz, addressing Thoday’s remarks. “All that we’ve done is to keep saying again and again that we don’t want to do anything that damages the indie sector.”

“The way of Kodak or Blockbuster”

Katz had to bat away questions over declining ratings performance after its linear performance sank to a historic low over the summer.

He stressed that the network is performing well on its VoD player as it aims to be the “public service streamer for young people,” with a pivot towards commissioning in genres that “do disproportionately well on streaming.”

“Any broadcaster who obsesses about linear ratings now risks going the way of Kodak or Blockbuster,” he added. “These are great brands that failed once the ground had shifted under their feet.”

With this in mind, Katz defended the commnissioning of Studio Lambert’s big-budget reality format Rise and Fall, which failed to match up to the success of The Traitors but picked up a 20% share of young viewers, according to the programs boss.

He claimed Channel 4 is not only reliant on older hits such as Gogglebox and revealed that 15 of its current most watched 25 shows are new.

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