C4 commissioning brief due in September as Katz seeks more Euro drama remakes
Channel 4 (C4)’s chief content officer Ian Katz has said the slowdown in commissioning at the commercially funded public service broadcaster over the summer will come to an end in September as it seeks more remakes of European dramas.
Ian Katz
C4 scaled back commissioning significantly over the summer in response to the challenging ad market and the macroeconomic downturn in 2022 and into this year.
The pubcaster said in its annual report it “remains on the hunt for brilliant creative ideas and new content opportunities” and Katz put the commissioning slowdown in the context of the wider pressures facing the industry.
“We have seen considerable content inflation. The big question now is, we’re obviously seeing a cutback in spending across most of the platforms and big streamers – much bigger than anything seen here. All of the broadcasters are cutting back spending in the face of the same ad pressures we’ve been talking about,” Katz said.
“I wrote to all of our suppliers a few weeks back explaining through the summer and into the start of the autumn we would largely only be commissioning current affairs and for strands like 4.0 and Untold. In September, we will brief fully on what we’re looking for as we go into 2024 and beyond.”
Katz pointed to Before We Die, produced by UK-based Eagle Eye Drama and Belgium’s Caviar TV, which is based on the Swedish series of the same name, as an example of a way to produce scripted more efficiently.
“The issue of production inflation has been with us for several years now. One of the things we’ve made significant progress in is low-cost drama, as the cost of scripted in particular had completely skyrocketed,” Katz said.
“Now we’ve got a strand of low-cost drama that’s incredibly effective. Before We Die has done really well on streaming in the last few weeks and it’s a good example of remaking European shows. We’re really interested in models of doing that and we’re looking for more of that into 2025.
“Working with brands has been a really good model for us and we’ve got a couple of really good brand-funded shows coming in the next couple of months and I’d love to see more of that. But I wouldn’t say we’re looking for a shift into cheaper genres. The reality is the genres that are increasingly important to us because they drive our streaming growth are actually among the more expensive genres, like scripted and reality, and our plan is to do more of those.”
Alex Mahon, the pubcaster’s CEO, defended C4’s investment in original content, with its annual report showing it invested a record £713m (US$836m) in British content, with £570m of that spent on originated content.
Despite significantly tightening the reins for the second half of the year, C4 said in its annual report its underlying cash investment in content remains on track to increase in 2023 over 2022, though much of this programming will air later this year and into 2024.
C4 also said it expects the ad market to improve into the fourth quarter of this year, with the broadcaster forecasting full-year revenues above £1bn.
2024 is expected to be more stable as the economy improves, with advertising demand buoyed by a US presidential election, Paralympic and Olympic Games in Paris, the Euros football tournament and a forthcoming UK general election.
Among the programming highlighted by C4 during the press conference were Derry Girls, Gogglebox, I Am Ruth, Somewhere Boy, Prince Andrew: The Musical, Friday Night Live: Jordan Gray, How to Survive a Dictator with Munya Chawawa, Big Boys, The Piano, Everyone Else Burns, Late Night Lycett, Undercover Ambulance, Kids, Evacuation, Paula, Rise & Fall, The Light in the Hall and Scared of the Dark.
