Channel 4 completes restructure to meet digital challenge

Channel 4 has decided on the team and structure to lead its creative renewal strategy and has confirmed an extra £50m investment in programming.

Channel 4 ident
Channel 4 ident

The broadcaster, now led by chief executive David Abraham, has now combined its commissioning and creative activities into a single, cross-platform content division for the first time, as Abraham signalled last month.

Acting chief creative officer (CCO) Julian Bellamy will work with Abraham to develop programming and content.

Abraham says: “Channel 4 has always been brilliant at enabling big creative ideas; with the emergence of initiatives such as Project Canvas we have to ensure these ideas are, from the outset, reaching their fullest expression across all platforms.

“The structure of the new content and commissioning team, which now includes Richard Davidson-Houston as head of online, will empower commissioners at Channel 4 to deliver more content like The Million Pound Drop with multiplatform features at the heart of the offer for our audiences.”

The CCO role will combine the channel’s former two most senior creative posts of head of channel 4 and director of television and content. It will now have 11 direct reports.

Head of online Richard Davidson-Houston will have responsibility for all of Channel 4’s online propositions and commissioning and will report to the CCO. The online products, cross-platform commissioning, 4iP and education teams will all report to Davidson-Houston under his new role. He will now carry out a month-long review of the current range of activities in this area.

The head of channel management, Rosemary Newell, will also report to the CCO, and in this role Newell will head up a team of channel managers who will have responsibility for coordinating each channel’s activities and scheduling the optimal programme mix.

Abraham recently addressed advertisers at the annual ISBA lunch and made a call for a “genuine partnership” with clients. He said that the channel would focus on developing the right content “and addressing those key demographics and audiences which you value so highly.”