House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee inquiry into the future of Channel 4
About ITN
For sixty-five years, ITN has been one of the UK’s foremost television production and news organisations. Combining cutting-edge technology and innovation with expert story-telling flair and energy, ITN is recognised globally for its quality, integrity and creativity. It was recently awarded the Special Recognition Award by industry trade title, Broadcast.
ITN makes the award-winning daily news programmes for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, providing comprehensive and impartial news to the British public and reaching millions of viewers every day. ITN Productions, ITN’s independent production division, produces high quality content across seven distinct areas: television production; sports; advertising; industry-specific programming; education content; entertainment and news footage syndication; and post-production.
About Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News is made by ITN the UK’s leading independent commercial broadcast news provider. ITN has produced the UK’s only hour-long prime time news programme since Channel 4 launched in 1982. Channel 4 News is one of only two of the original schedule line-up that have survived the broadcaster’s 39 year history.
Channel 4 News is a multi-award-winning programme. Over the last few years, it has won a number of noteworthy domestic and international prizes, including two Peabody Awards, several BAFTAs, and a record number of RTS Journalism Awards. The programme also won two International Emmy Awards in 2020 – for its coverage of ‘Hong Kong - Year of Living Dangerously’ and Best Documentary For Sama. The 6th time in eight years Channel 4 News has won this award.
What, if any, developments over the last five years give cause to re-evaluate the ownership of Channel 4 Corporation?
The media industry has been reshaped dramatically in the last five years by ever-evolving digital technology. Far from undermining Channel 4’s position as a state-owned public service broadcaster, ITN believes these changes have built a case for reinforcing the existing remit of this not-for-profit publisher/broadcaster to preserve the crucial role its news service - Channel 4 News - plays in creating a healthy democracy.
Fake news - its impact on democracy
The impact of the proliferation of fake news online emphasises the importance and value of public service media (PSM). Rather than weaken Channel 4’s position, this underlines the crucial role its news service Channel 4 New plays in upholding democracy. When trusted news services are hard to identify in the crowded online space, Channel 4 News’ content online as a recognisable trusted brand is invaluable. Independently produced, regulated, impartial news remains a powerful antidote to often dangerous misinformation and conspiracy theories. The current ownership model for Channel 4 ensures there is investment in a dedicated one hour of news in a primetime slot, as well as digital offerings, even though this area is not revenue-generating. This investment and commitment to news could be threatened with a private owner legitimately seeking to invest in more profitable genres.
Identification and monetisation of public service news online
ITN recognises that audience habits are changing and in turn broadcasters are adapting their businesses. Underpinning these developments is the need to ensure that public service content, particularly news, is easily found by viewers regardless of the platform they are using, which is why ITN supports future legislation to guarantee prominence across platforms for public service media.
ITN warned of the potential of ‘news deserts’ emerging online in the future without specific and robust protections for news content in its submission to Ofcom’s future of public service media consultation (PSM).
In the consultation ITN said: “Without a clear regulatory framework to ensure the provision and visibility of PSM news in a digital environment, misinformation and disinformation will continue to thrive while regulated, accurate, professionally-produced news will become harder to find. The ability to access independent and impartial journalism underpins any functioning society”. Channel 4 News was one of the first to expose disinformation and dissemination with the launch of the highly respected FactCheck service in 2005, which became a full-time online service in 2010. Channel 4 News also has a track-record of award-winning, world-beating investigations including the Cambridge Analytica undercover exposé, the Windrush scandal and the recent investigation into the misuse of data in the US with its ‘Deterring Democracy’ investigation. News is expensive to produce and currently news providers are unable to extract ‘fair value’ from their news content and a new funding/regulatory model is needed to support quality journalism online. Currently fake news which ‘goes viral’ may be of more value to the social platforms, with the advertising model rewarding sensationalism and fake news far more than it does thorough, accurate and impartial journalism. These concerns about the sustainability of journalism would only intensify should Channel 4 be privatised and ITN supports findings outlined in the Cairncross Review and House of Lords Future of Journalism Inquiry.
The societal value of trusted free-to-air news
The pandemic highlighted the inherent desire among audiences for accurate evidence-based information and lived and shared experiences and content that reflects the realities of modern life in Britain and its place in the world. Nowhere was that more evident than in news, where services across the board, whether ITN’s news programmes or those of rivals, saw a major uplift in audiences. Channel 4 News responded by extending its bulletins and providing extra in-depth programming featuring rigorous health reporting and ground-breaking investigations into the latest scientific and government advice, helping the programme secure a six-year audience high in March 2020. This included Scotland’s care home failings; the disproportionality of the impact of Covid-19 on ethnic minority communities; the crisis in PPE stockpiles and contracts and concerns surrounding the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine on younger people amongst many others. In 2020 and into early 2021, the 7pm programme saw a year-on-year uplift of 20% in volume for its audience, with particularly strong growth in share of 16- 34 which grew 50% year on year. During the last 18 months, other ITN-produced content including ITV News bulletins and numerous Channel 5 documentaries have also attracted solid and loyal linear audiences.
Channel 4 News’ early move into online news provision has also successfully attracted and engaged young audiences. The programme is the biggest UK news programme on social media with 10 million social followers. ITN recognises the challenges facing all broadcasters to replicate their linear success in a digital environment, and in Channel 4’s case, to retain notoriously fickle younger viewers, and supports the calls for further online investment and regulation to maintain a relevant and thriving creative sector well into the future. Channel 4 News’ own data on the success of online news provision clearly demonstrates the appetite for news content across younger audience platforms and suggests this should be enhanced and protected in the future.
Nations and regions
Brexit exposed the strong divisions in the UK and ITN believes that the existing investment Channel 4 has made in creating creative bases outside London would be undermined if a foreign investor were to acquire Channel 4 on a for-profit basis. Channel 4 News is making a major investment in the nations and regions by opening a new base in Leeds. This development will lead to the programme being broadcast from Leeds, currently on two nights per week - enhancing the already strong commitment to a non-metropolitan content focus and opening the programme up to more viewers from a wider range of backgrounds. This will supplement the bases we have in Glasgow, Cardiff and the Midlands.
Channel 4 News continues to grow its reach with audiences across the UK. It attracts a higher share of audience than the national average in the South and East of England and Scotland; it has seen younger audiences, with over 50% growth amongst 16–34-year-olds and an 8% growth among ethnically diverse audiences throughout Britain in 2020. It also attracts a higher share of audience than the national average in the South and East of England and Scotland.
ITN already has a separate TV production office based in Leeds and has won a number of commissions, produced by local talent. ITN’s TV arm (ITN Productions) has successfully collaborated with Channel 4 News in the past, not least with For Sama – a documentary that spun out of a series of Channel 4 News reports on Syria and has gone on to win more than 100 awards and been nominated for an Oscar. The Unreported World strand is made from Glasgow while Dispatches is made by filmmakers based across Britain. The rise of global streamers in the past five years has highlighted the distinctiveness of the British PSBs and their ability to cater to local audience needs. Another positive impact is the growth of the creative economy outside of London.
If Channel 4 Corporation were privatised, what would be the benefits? What would be the risks and to what extent could they be mitigated?
Channel 4’s remit specifies that its programming should demonstrate innovation and appeal to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society. This remit gives the channel a different purpose from other commercial organisations such as ITV and Channel 5.
Channel 4 News has been defined by this remit which has allowed the channel to take more risks than others particularly in its news coverage, and to focus more on the ethnic minority groups less served by other broadcasters. No other broadcaster has a dedicated one-hour of primetime news, a more ethnically diverse newsroom - on and off screen - or editorial focus on appealing to the many distinct minority groups in the UK. The duration, fixed time slot and appetite of Channel 4 News to explore more topics in-depth makes it a unique feature in the broadcasting landscape.
During the current debate on the potential privatisation of Channel 4, several commentators have raised questions about whether a commercial owner would honour and protect the distinct Channel 4 News agenda and its appetite to take risks to cover stories others won’t. The list of these types of stories is long and profound but in recent years has included the Windrush Scandal, which the programme investigated and reported months before other broadcasters, and exposés such as Cambridge Analytica.
Channel 4 News provides a counterbalance to other news providers, including the BBC, and there are valid questions about how a move to privatise Channel 4 could impact on media plurality, especially for diverse audiences.
It is for these reasons that, while ITN remains neutral on potential ownership models, we would need to be presented with further evidence as to why private ownership would provide a more sustainable model for Channel 4 in the future than the current delicate media ecosystem.
If privatisation was to take place, ITN would advocate strengthening, protecting and enhancing Channel 4’s news remit, particularly regarding nations and regions coverage, foreign news reporting, a commitment to investigations as well as on diversity and appealing to every group in the UK across all the platforms they use; a specific ring-fenced budget for Channel 4 News in perpetuity plus Retail Price Index (RPI); guarantees that the programme would continue to have a fixed one-hour primetime slot in the schedule; and continued editorial independence from its owner. The Sky News/Comcast model has proved to be effective and provides a precedent and a basis upon which to build.
As an independent producer serving the three main public service broadcasters ITN believes that the publisher/broadcaster status of Channel 4 should be preserved. By commissioning an independent, external supplier to produce its news output, Channel 4 can demonstrate complete editorial integrity. A private owner with its own in-house production arm could undermine the independence of the news and have undue influence on the news agenda. Removing the publisher/broadcaster status would remove a major buyer of content in the UK and have an adverse impact on the independent production market that relies on Channel 4 for a proportion of commissions and work.
If Channel 4 were to remain in public ownership, what would be the benefits? Insofar as they are valid, how could concerns about its longer-term viability be addressed?
The benefit of remaining in public ownership is that less profitable genres including news and current affairs would continue to be supported. Its emphasis on diversity also ensures that the needs of minority audiences are served, and it is hard to conceive of another broadcaster committing to a project as ambitious as the recent Black to Front initiative, which included a Channel 4 News special among the line-up of programmes.
Risk-taking is also in Channel 4’s DNA which means it is able to invest in content that has societal and cultural benefits rather than financial ones. It is also able to support new and untested talent in front of and behind the camera, rather than having to rely on established names which have immediate mass-appeal. Encouraging suppliers to expand their networks, both in terms of talent and crew, helps to create a more equitable workforce which is more reflective of modern Britain.
Being a smaller player on the global stage means that Channel 4 is also able to innovate and to be fleet of foot. It moved quickly to work with Amazon over the US Open final rights which demonstrates a flexibility and willingness to forge partnerships quickly, and to respond to public demand.
Being in public ownership also means Channel 4 would be able to maintain its publisher/broadcaster status which stimulates the independent production sector and has created a vibrant production sector which plays a crucial role in strengthening Britain’s creative economy.
The advertising model supporting linear television continues to be robust and Channel 4 provides an alternative, younger, and more diverse audience to advertisers. However, there are market challenges for all commercial broadcasters and in order to support its longer-term viability, Channel 4’s remit and licence obligations should be reviewed and apply to both linear and digital provision. Channel 4 News’ early foray into creating content which appeals to younger audiences across a range of platforms demonstrates the potential for success. The programme is the biggest UK news programme on social media with 10 million social followers. With further investment and incentives to focus on digital content across the board, as opposed to simply the linear channel, Channel 4 would thrive well into the future.
Should the regulation and/or remit of Channel 4 be changed, irrespective of its ownership? What would be the risks and benefits of any such changes to the UK Public Service Broadcasting system?
Key PSB genres such as news and current affairs
Channel 4’s current model is unique in that it produces commercially successful shows, as well as reaching under-served audiences with programming that tackles often-challenging social and cultural issues. There are valid questions as to whether this very British, so-called ‘Robin Hood model’ would be viable for a purely commercial or global player, unless there was an incentive to invest in vital yet ‘non-profitable’ programming - including an hour-long news show appealing to all sections of the UK or world class investigations which can run over a number of years and require significant investment. The continued rise of fake news and misinformation makes sustaining and protecting news and current affairs more critical than ever and this must be a paramount consideration for policymakers.
The independent production community
Channel 4’s status as a publisher / broadcaster is what sets it apart from other PSBs and it has played a major role in allowing the UK creative sector to flourish internationally as rights can be retained and exploited overseas. And all content is currently commissioned externally. This is a significant marketplace for UK independent production companies, not least smaller indies and those based out of London. The majority of media owners now have in-house production studios which reduce the number of hours available for independent producers. An unintended risk could be the reduction in hours available across the whole of Channel 4 to independent programme providers. There could also be an impact on the Channel 4 News Independent Film Fund which provides invaluable funding and support to independent filmmakers as previously outlined in this submission.
Communities/audiences currently served by Channel 4’s remit
Channel 4’s remit is to attract young and diverse audiences who are unrepresented elsewhere. If a commercial owner was focused on attracting large audiences to secure ratings and increased advertising revenue, then these audiences could be lost. Channel 4 News also aims to give a voice to the voiceless, which supports the current remit, which ITN argues should be protected at all costs.
The viewer/consumer
Channel 4 plays a vital role in ensuring a range of opinion, voices and viewpoints and so has a vital position in the UK media landscape. The key factor in any ownership change would be protect and strengthen the remit to preserve the unique tone and range of content so valued by audiences. British-made content, reflecting communities across the UK, could be in lost if a new owner has a more commercial and global outlook.
September 2021
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