Industry bodies have blasted Ofcom’s “arbitrary” proposed increase of Channel 4’s nations quota, which stops significantly short of their own recommendation.
As part of the broadcaster’s 10-year licence renewal, the regulator last week proposed to raise C4’s minimum spend and production hours from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales from 9% to 12% from 2030.
Though this an upturn from Ofcom’s initial suggestion of maintaining the current 9% level, it still falls short of the 16% suggested by Pact and the nations’ three screen agencies – Northern Ireland Screen, Screen Scotland and Creative Wales.
Pact chief executive John McVay branded Ofcom’s proposal “deeply disappointing” and “a missed opportunity at a time when producers are struggling across the board”, particularly with C4 set to move into the production space itself.
He added: “The quotas are a key intervention to maintaining a healthy and vibrant PSB system which can reflect different voices of people across the UK. The decision risks this much-needed diversity.’’
NI Screen chief executive Richard Williams added that deferring the increase to 2030, five years after C4’s new licence begins, “speaks volumes” about Ofcom and C4’s appetite for raising quotas.
He said the 3% rise was the “lowest figure deemed defendable” and indicates “a desperate reluctance to see the nations as anything other than a dead weight”.
Williams said: “Ofcom rightly has concern for the viability of Channel 4 but seems also to assume, whether the evidence supports it or not, that a commitment to the nations is a commercial death nail.”
With at least 16% of the UK population living outside England, Screen Scotland director David Smith said the proposed figured and timescale seems “arbitrary and hardly ‘all4theUK’.”
Creative Wales said in a statement that Ofcom’s proposals do not represent an “acceptable position”, particularly given C4’s “claim that celebrating regional diversity is a core pillar of its purpose”.
C4 chief executive Alex Mahon recently said the broadcaster "will try and do more" from the nations but described a 16% quota as "a false comparison" with the BBC's same level as that PSB is funded with public money.
However, she vowed to commission nation content that is "not just kilt and shortbread", adding that audiences want true representation of where they come from rather than a "quintessential, parochial version".
