The chief executive of British public service broadcaster Channel 4 has said “risky” shows such as “Derry Girls,” “It’s a Sin” and “Gogglebox” would probably have not been commissioned if the network was privately-owned.
Channel 4 CEO Dr Alex Mahon (pictured above at a committee hearing in 2019) was attending an evidence session in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday morning (July 12) in London about the potential privatization of the network when she made the comments.
Drawing on her previous experience at private companies, Mahon said that were Channel 4 to be privatized she would “change the commissioning strategy, the kinds of programs we buy, in order to de-risk it. So that would mean I wouldn’t do the creative innovation anymore. It would mean on television you wouldn’t see things like the Paralympics, you wouldn’t have seen things like ‘Derry Girls’ or ‘It’s a Sin’ or even ‘Gogglebox.’”
When probed by surprised members of the committee why that was, given the success of those shows, Mahon replied that the creators of those show “have gone on record saying that no one else would have bought those shows. ‘Derry Girls’ has turned out to be a huge hit. Wonderful. If you haven’t seen it, it doesn’t sound great because it’s a 1990s comedy about young girls growing up in [Derry]. I mean, no one would have thought that that would be really popular. It’s a very, very risky show to me. And that goes for many of the shows that subsequently become popular with the public.”
When asked about Channel 4’s financial sustainability, Mahon said: “I think it’s fair to say that Channel 4 is in the strongest financial health it’s ever been in. It does not need help financially it does not need fixing.”
More to come…
Source: Read Full Article
