Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham has written to key suppliers and stakeholders claiming that the audacious swoop for The Great British Bake Off will allow the broadcaster to invest in more risk-taking programmes.
In the email, which was sent out yesterday lunchtime, Abraham defended £75m three-year deal and reassured producers that C4’s “current and planned significant investment in UK content” will be unaffected.
He added that the Love Productions format would partly be paid for by funds released after ITV picked up C4’s horseracing coverage from 2017 – thought to cost more than £10m per year – along with “some increase” to its overall programming budget.
Abraham told producers that profitable C4 programmes, including many of its entertainment shows, fund the “wide range of our high-risk, high-remit delivering - but loss-making content” such as its Paralympics coverage and Channel 4 News.
“This careful balancing act has always been at the heart of the Channel 4 model,” he added.
“From The Simpsons to Sex in the City, Big Brother to Desperate Housewives, Channel 4 has backed commercial programming to allow it to invest in innovation.”
Abraham went on to single out a range of shows including Peter Kosminsky’s Isis drama and Windfall Films’ Bounty, alongside its factual highlights.
“It will allow us to produce more risk-taking drama like Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky’s forthcoming new series or ambitious factual like our recreation of Captain Bligh’s 4000-mile journey across the Pacific,” he said.
“It will support our commitment to great foreign current affairs with Unreported World and domestic undercover investigation with Dispatches and Channel 4 News. And it will allow us to maintain our fulsome support for the Paralympics.”
Channel 4 beat a number of domestic and international rivals to capture Bake Off with ITV, Sky, Netflix and Discovery all understood to have been interested in the format.
“We understand a number of broadcasters and platforms were interested in acquiring the show, with Love accepting our offer, in part because of our strong track record as a creative partner,” he said.
“We believe it is significant that Bake Off will remain on free to air television – available to everyone, rather than move behind a subscription paywall.”
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