Cochrane to leave Channel 4

Channel 4 group marketing director Polly Cochrane is leaving the broadcaster after 10 years. It comes head of a restructure of the 170-strong marketing, communications and audiences division, which Cochrane is expected to oversee before leaving.

It is thought that the broadcaster, which is scrapping its radio plans and making up to a fifth of its workforce redundant as part of £100m cost-cutting plans, will not directly replace Cochrane.

She joined the broadcaster in 1998 and has worked on the launch of digital channels such as More4, and was part of the team that took movie channel Film4 free-to-air. She also oversaw the launch marketing for on-demand service 4oD and established in-house ad agency 4Creative. Previously, she worked at Five ahead of its launch in March 1997, and has also held roles at The Guardian and The Observer.

Channel 4’s marketing operation is expected to be cut back by about 15% to 20% in line with plans to reduce overall staff numbers from 1,000 to about 850. The broadcaster is looking to make savings of around £100m over two years.