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behind tv
making a mark
at channel 4
Mark Thompson is aiming for “big and bold” at C4. But can the network’s new boss deliver? asks Matthew Bell
“Thompson is not simply an office suit - he also has experience of getting his hands dirty making programmes.”
Richard And Judy, Location, Location, Location and - most viewers will shudder at the memory of - Something For the Weekend... Is this the brave new world envisaged by Channel 4’s radical founding fathers in 1982?
But there is hope. With the transfer of Mark Thompson from the BBC completed, C4 has a new boss who knows his TV onions.
One of 10 candidates inter- viewed, Thompson follows Jeremy Isaacs, Michael Grade and, most recently, Michael Jackson, as chief executive. According to chairman Vanni Treves, he was the unanimous choice of the Channel 4 board.
Thompson has so far proved reticent and will not be giving press interviews until he gets his feet under his new C4 desk in March. His comments so far have been limited to his desire to com- mission more “big, bold” pro- grammes like Shackleton and The Six Wives of Henry VIII - though would any TV exec say otherwise?
Some clue to his ambitions at C4 can be found in an article Thompson wrote for ACADEMY 18 months ago. The then BBC director of television argued for a new definition of public service broadcasting.
“Public broadcasters need to protect seriousness and creative diversity,” Thompson wrote, “but that doesn’t mean that we have to embalm the current schedules and bury the future alongside a senti- mental attachment to the past.”
Continuing, Thompson main- tained that the role of public service broadcasters like the BBC was to “support British talent and production and invest billions of pounds in British writers, produc- ers, directors and actors.”
That sounds promising and, in fact, Thompson’s has a good track record in commissioning
ground-breaking shows. As con- troller of BBC 2 in the late 1990s, he was responsible for innovative comedy shows - The League Of Gentleman, Big Train and The Royle Family - dramas such as The Cops and shows at the serious end of the entertainment genre, including Back To The Floor.
Indeed, Thompson has said that something won’t stand out as different on TV if you don’t have at least one sleepless night about the idea before it’s made. If Thompson remains true to his ideals, Channel 4 may begin to match BBC 2’s edgy, innovative programmes.
And Thompson is not simply an office suit - he also has experience of getting his hands dirty making programmes. After leaving Oxford University with a first in English, he joined the BBC as a production trainee in 1979. Starting as a pro- ducer on consumer show Watchdog, Thompson worked his way up the corporation passing through Breakfast Time, Newsnight and the Nine O’Clock News, before becoming editor of Panorama in 1990.
But the 44-year-old father of three will not find life easy at Channel 4. For a start, although the BBC was fighting a cut-throat ratings war with ITV, the corpora- tion was insulated from economic reality by the licence fee.
If a programme bombed, the BBC was unaffected financially; if no-one watches a highfalutin’ Channel 4 arts show, the advertis- ers will pull the plug. One industry commentator points out that Thompson “will of course face the entirely new (to him) challenge of scheduling to please advertisers”.
Given that almost three-quar- ters of the channel’s ad revenue is from youth-oriented commercials, this will mean attracting plenty of 16 to 34-year-olds in peaktime.
She adds: “I expect Channel 4 will still be very ratings conscious.”
What this means in program- ming terms – as it must at a chan- nel that has to fulfil a public serv- ice remit and attract advertisers - is a trade-off. Thompson will have to use the money earned by the populist programmes to pay for its more esoteric offerings.
Another problem Thompson faces is that too few viewers tune into the broadcasters’ former rat- ings bankers - Brookside and The Big Breakfast. Both require urgent overhauls, maybe scrapping.
Away from programming issues, Thompson finds himself tak- ing up his new job at a time when Channel 4’s finances are a bit shaky. The broadcaster has been hit hard by falling ad rev- enue and its digital ventures - FilmFour and youth channel E4 - are loss-making. And then there’s the Channel’s latest £23m gam- ble - online betting service At The Races. Will it stay the course?
But in Thompson, C4 have found a man with more than just impressive programme-making credentials. On his appointment, Treves said that “the central role he has played in the develop- ment and realisation of the BBC’s digital strategy” marked him out as the ideal man for the job.
One thing, however, is certain - as a BBC lifer Thompson will find life at Channel 4 has novelty value. But some industry insiders doubt whether he will stay long enough to get properly acquainted.
They say that Thompson’s ulti- mate ambition is to succeed Greg Dyke as director-general of the BBC, but before he’s ready for that step-up he needs some expe- rience in the commercial sector. Hence the move to C4.
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