Pressure mounts on Ofcom to secure more Channel 4 programmes made in Wales

Martin Shipton

Further pressure has been put on the communications regulator Ofcom to make Channel 4 increase its quota of programmes made in Wales and the other devolved nations.

In response to Ofcom’s consultation on the renewal of Channel 4’s operating licence, the three bodies have come together to urge Ofcom to scrap its proposal to maintain Channel 4’s current ‘Made Outside England’ quota at 9%, with 91% of C4’s production reserved for England and 65% directly for London.

The trio of nations is pushing Ofcom to increase Channel 4’s ‘Outside of London’ commissioning spend to 50%, its out of England quota to 16%+, and to introduce individual quotas for each UK nation in line with those accepted by the BBC since 2009.

They believe that Channel 4 should fulfil its remit and licence obligations as a public service broadcaster fairly across the entire UK, delivering content promoting new and diverse voices and perspectives and playing its part as a broadcaster owned by the UK public in supporting the creative economy outside London.

Essential

They say it is essential that Channel 4 operates in a manner that ensures no individual nation experiences undue advantages or disadvantages. All three screen agencies agreed that a 91% quota in favour of England is indefensible in the UK in 2024.

Overall, they say the proposals outlined by Ofcom contradict Channel 4’s own UK strategy which states “to truly fulfil our remit to stand up for diversity, take creative risks and inspire change, we knew we’d need to change too. We’d need to look and feel different, behave differently and most importantly, get outside the M25. It’s about representing a diversity of thought and opinions from across the UK, and across all of our content.”

The Ofcom consultation reports that Channel 4 has found it challenging to commission outside of the M25 and to meet the current 9% “Out of England” quota yet, according to the three nations’ agencies, the historic data presented by Ofcom and Channel 4 does not strongly support that assertion. All three screen agency responses pointed towards the economic success of the BBC’s 16%+ quota across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as a more appropriate benchmark upon which to set Channel 4 targets – one that reflects the population share of all four home nations.

They say the BBC has not experienced difficulty in meeting its higher quota, and remains confident that its broad range of suppliers across the UK will continue to deliver for the Corporation.

Revision

NI Screen and Northern Ireland’s indies have gone further and strongly criticised Ofcom over its “extremely light touch” revision of Channel 4’s nations quota.

In its response to Ofcom’s reconsultation over its proposal to increase Channel 4’s nations quota from 9% to 12% from 2030, NI Screen called the quota rise “cynical”. The screen body said the mooted 2030 start date “does not suggest that either Ofcom or C4 listened to the universal challenge presented by all responders in the first consultation”.

Derry Girls was “the only Northern Ireland project of scale on Channel 4 during the PSB’s [public service broadcaster’s] licence period” according to NI Screen.

NI Screen, alongside its counterparts in Scotland and Wales, has been campaigning with Pact (the UK screen sector trade body for independent production and distribution companies) and the companies themselves for Channel 4’s nations quota to be raised to 16%, with individual quotas for each nation based on population.

The screen body’s response stated: “Channel 4’s engagement with Northern Ireland during the present 10-year license was extremely poor and there is no evidence that this extremely light touch regulation will remedy that experience.”

‘Insulting’

NI Screen’s response said that the reconsultation was “more insulting” than the original consultation.

It also stated: “This time the thesis is simply that commissioning from the nations is bad for business, a deadweight on the commercial viability of Channel 4 when the broadcaster’s commercial viability is under pressure. This assertion is not analysed or interrogated by Ofcom; it is simply repeatedly asserted as C4’s view.”

Creative Wales’ submission also expressed its “huge disappointment” at the revised 12% figure and that the level and 2030 implementation date falls “far short” of its expectations.

Its response acknowledged the challenges facing C4 and other PSBs as audience consumption habits change and budgets tighten, while querying the reasons for 2030 being set as the start date for the proposed new quota.

“The digital shift is not a new trend, and we note broadcasters will have been working on approaches to pivoting to new models of content delivery for some time,” it stated.

“We would argue a target date of 2030 poses the risk of insufficient planning for any digital switch over by 2030, raising concerns that a gap in more stretching quotas leading up to this period would impact the levels of investment in sustaining the indigenous production sector in the short term, leaving the sector less able to respond to any increase in demand in 2030.”

Channel 4’s licence is due for renewal at the end of 2024.