Making multiplatform the future of Channel 4

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Channel 4 is to expand its senior commissioning team this year to extend its cross-platform commissioning ambitions into areas such as news, comedy and music.

In his first interview since joining C4 six months ago, director of new media and technology Jon Gisby told Broadcast that finding staff with the right skills is the biggest challenge to overcome in C4's digital strategy.

"Over the next few months, we'll have more people within the commissioning structure from a web and multiplatform background," he said.

"Finding people who are web savvy, who can bridge the gap in digital public service broadcasting and who can also think commercially is very hard. If someone can't tick all three boxes, we need to put the right combination of people together."

Long term view

Long term, C4 wants to move the commissioning processes for other genres closer to those of education commissioning editor Matt Locke and factual new media commissioner Adam Gee.

"We need people who can try to bridge the perspectives of what works for the different platforms and who understand the strengths of TV and the web," said Gisby.

Last week, C4's senior commissioners spent several days at an offsite meeting with digital agencies and indies to thrash out ways of working together on cross-platform commissions.

News is an immediate focus and C4 is in talks with Channel 4 News supplier ITN about how to build on web initiative 4Docs, which has led to several 3 Minute Wonders, and web-only Dispatches films.

Campaigning seasons

C4 head of programmes Julian Bellamy has an appetite for campaigning seasons, with gun crime next in line, and Gisby is looking at ways of extending these branded events onto the web.

"The web can be a natural filter for someone who's engaging with an issue for the first time and  wants to find out more," said Gisby. "Depending on the subject, we can create a permanent web presence or work with other organisations to direct users elsewhere on the internet."

Gisby, 40, joined C4 from Yahoo, where he was vice-president of media and communications. His arrival comes at a crucial time in C4's digital evolution, indicated by the decision to put the new media boss on the broadcaster's board.

His role is divided between developing the strategy for on-demand viewing, shaping the future of the core channel4.com, establishing an online home for public service programming via the new 4IP fund, and finding ways of using digital platforms to build new revenue streams around C4's core properties.

The end of 4oD

Over the next six to 12 months 4oD will disappear, to be replaced  by upcoming VoD service Kangaroo and by catch-up content on channel4.com.

The site will also feature additional material, supporting big programme brands from Big Brother to Channel 4 News, innovative PSB material along the lines of Embarrassing Illnesses, and commercially driven communities around factual staples such as food and property, with an A Place in the Sun-branded classified site set to launch soon.

Gisby sees these projects as a web-based continuation of what C4 has always done on-screen, balancing big shows and revenue drivers with more PSB-friendly material.

One major deviation from C4's previous web strategy will be a shift away from aggregated material. There are now likely to be fewer deals like 4oD's provision of National Geographic programmes.

Investment fund

Next month, C4 will open itself to submissions for ideas for 4IP, its new investment fund for national online PSB content. Gisby is recruiting for a head of the fund and four digital commissioning managers to be based in the regional hubs in London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds.

Each of these commissioners will seek out talent, form funding partnerships with regional bodies and take responsibility for the delivery of projects.

"This will produce stuff in areas that the market isn't providing for because it doesn't see a commercial opportunity," said Gisby. "It won't have to be profitable - it's more about catalysing new ways of thinking about what PSB is and how we can distribute and fund it, and how we can add to regional creative digital bases."

This step into the unknown mirrors a wider question facing C4: as a mature business, how should it innovate? As with all linear broadcasters, it continues to wrestle with how much of its energies to invest in TV and web as the lines continue to blur.

"We have to develop digitally in a way that scales with the organisation as a whole and we must recognise across all departments that the journey C4's been on  needs to accelerate," he said.

"The web will hit TV revenues and until we have real consistency of consumption across platforms, there will be a degree of art and science. But we have to move as fast as we possibly can."