UK producers call for mandatory Channel 4 ‘out-of-London’ commissioning quotas

Alice & Jack (Source: Channel 4)

UK TV trade body Pact and TAC, the association for Welsh indies, have both called on industry regulator Ofcom to raise the out-of-London spend quotas for public comcaster Channel 4.

Ofcom has been holding a consultation on the broadcaster’s licence renewal and has thus far not opted to raise the quota for commissioning productions from outside of London from its current level of 35%.

Alice & Jack broadcaster Channel 4 currently has a voluntary commitment to spend 50% of its commissioning budget outside of the UK capital, and both organisatons have urged Ofcom to make this mandatory.

In its response to the consultation, Pact also made the case for separate quotas for the UK Nations to be introduced, in line with pubcaster the BBC (Scotland: 8% network spend and hours, Wales: 5% network spend and hours, Northern Ireland: 3% network spend and hours).

TAC’s response, also included this proposal and meanwhile illustrated how, in the last five years, Channel 4 has never fallen lower than 54% in terms of out of London hours and never lower than 45% in terms of spend.

Ofcom is also proposing to reduce Channel 4’s original commissions on the core channel from 56% to 45%. TAC’s response to Ofcom highlighted that this is a reduction of around 20%, which it argues is disproportionate to the need for Chanel 4 to divert resource to more digital content young audiences.

Their concerns come as the government readies plans to allow Channel 4 the right to make and own content in-house.

Pact CEO John McVay said: “Pact continues to be concerned about Channel 4’s new capacity to produce its own programmes and the impact this could have on the UK’s production sector, particularly for indies in the Nations and Regions. We disagree with Ofcom’s proposals to retain the existing quotas and urge them to consider strengthening Channel 4’s commitment to supporting indies outside of London and across the UK.”

TAC chair Dyfrig Davies added: “We are surprised that, having proposed to fundamentally alter Channel 4’s requirements elsewhere, Ofcom is not recognising how the broadcaster has changed in its commissioning structure and approach.

“With its hubs and voluntary targets, Channel 4 has hard-wired out-of-London commissioning into its structure and we believe Ofcom should future-proof this by raising the quota in line with the current reality. As it stands the 35% quota level is simply not fit for purpose.”