Ofcom is inviting responses on proposals to cut Channel 4’s original productions quota by 11%, with cuts set to be largely concentrated in daytime.
C4 has asked for its original quotas to be set at 45%, down from the current 56%, to help it focus on streaming and social platform growth in the renewal of its 10-year licence.
The broadcaster told Ofcom it wanted to reroute budget from daytime shows to “higher-impact peak time content” – higher-budget shows with a “longer-tail” on-demand viewing window.
“As we are working within set budget constraints, this reallocation of origination spend in daytime allows us to focus on the peak time schedule, where our commissioning strategy is being tipped towards genres that are more streaming friendly – e.g. drama, comedy, premium factual and reality,” C4’s submission stated.
Live show Steph’s Packed Lunch is one high-profile casualty of this strategy, with no plan to commission a successor. C4 has said significant changes would be “unlikely” before 2030, and one option is to air more acquisitions between 6am and 6pm.
In the past decade, C4 has consistently overdelivered against its current quota, with originals making up 63% of its output last year, when it spent a record £570m on original shows.
Ofcom plans to require that at least 70% of C4’s peak time programming is original content. Last year, the figure stood at 82%.
The consultation also outlines plans to relax a commitment to produce one news programme at lunchtime and cutting current affairs hours by 14% to a minimum of 178.
The consultation is open until 14 February 2024.
