This book covers a dramatic decade in the fortunes of Britain's
quirkiest broadcaster. It opens in 2009, with the realisation that
Channel 4's biggest money spinner, Big Brother, had become a toxic
asset and would have to be discarded, at the same time as
advertising revenues were shrinking in the wake of the 2008
financial crash. Maggie Brown's compelling narrative, which draws
on interviews with key players in Channel 4's story and unique
access to the broadcaster's archives, takes us inside the boardroom
battles, changes in senior management and commissioning teams,
interventions by the media regulator Ofcom, and the channel's
response to a rapidly-changing media and political landscape. Brown
describes how the channel, under its new chief executive David
Abraham, successfully fought off the threat of privatisation, which
became a reality after the Conservatives' general election victory
in 2015. The price for remaining publicly funded was a substantial
relocation of Channel 4's operations, with Leeds announced in 2018
as a new 'regional hub'. The Channel 4 story is also one of
ambitious and innovative programming, with a new director of
content, Jay Hunt, instigating radical changes in commissioning and
scheduling. Brown traces programming hits and losses during this
period, with the departure to competitors of celebrity chefs, Black
Mirror and Charlie Brooker, horse racing and Formula 1, and a
reappraisal of the remit of institutions such as Channel 4 News and
Film 4. But there were successes too, with the 2012 Paralympics
helping to restore a public service sheen, and new programmes such
as Gogglebox in 2013 connecting with younger audiences, and, in
2016, the coup of taking The Great British Bake Off from its home
at the BBC.
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