Memorandum submitted by Tom Collis
WHAT CHANNEL
4 IS PREPARED
TO SPEND
ITS MONEY
ON
— 100 million+ in three years
marketing "the brand".
— £100 million+ over five
years on "forefront of technology" IT.
— £30 million in 2006 alone
on so-called new media, including a seemingly bottomless pit of
simpering ninnies presenting quiz call programmes... and a radio
station (how on earth did this happen?).
— £1.5 million on an events
company in order to promote its cooking programmes (words fail
me).
— staff salaries averaging £70k
(when even the BBC only forks out £50k).
— £3 million on the mean-spirited
an unwatched Space Cadets, with presumably a similar amount
expended on the equally pointless Unanimous.
— £40 million on an American
imported programme, Desperate Housewives. This works out
at about £1 million an episode, when the Code of Practice
indicates that it will pay £150k for a documentary (surely
what Channel 4 is supposed to be doing)—the justification
of this decision should make interesting reading.
— £180 million on ensuring
that members of the public who really should have been sectioned,
receive not 15 minutes but endless dreary hours of fame on Big
Brother for another three years.
— £5 million+ on a VoD service,
where the level of "demand" and any return on "public
service" cash seems to have been inconsequential commercial
annoyances.
WHAT CHANNEL
4 IS APPARENTLY
NOT PREPARED
TO SPEND
ITS MONEY
ON
— quality public service programming
(whatever happened to its responsibility to provide alternative
viewing to that on other channels).
— its share of digital switchover
costs; asking for a government handout instead.
This "not for profit" broadcaster
is run by an ex-sketch writer for The Two Ronnies, the
marketing man for I Can't Believe it's Not Butter and a
chap who owns a chain of Belgian-themed restaurants; all of whom
have therefore produced gags of a type in their own separate ways.
Unfortunately, the last laugh seems to be on
the general public. At least the advertising agencies who are
about to be subject to an unwarranted 5% hike in charges by the
salesmen at Channel 4 now have an alternative in ITV. We can only
hope that in terms of programmes also, Michael Grade can resurrect
his new venture at the expense of his old one [...]
3 December 2006
|
