C4 to slash workforce by 15%

The broadcaster's programme spend for 2008 will now be£575m -£25m less than its original forecast of£600m and£40m less than in 2007.

It has also identified a further£25m in savings from other areas including marketing, new business investment, new media and general overheads, including staff. It plans to cut a further£50m from its cost base next year.

C4 plans to reduce headcount by up to 150 posts, scaling back its workforce from 965 - made up of 875 full-time staff and 90 contract staff - to between 850 and 800.

The group will offer voluntary redundancies and will consult staff on other ways to minimise compulsory job losses.

“Channel 4 has outperformed its competitors in recent years but the economic downturn is now affecting the entire media industry,” said chief executive Andy Duncan.

“Our objective as a public organisation is to operate at break even while maximising creative investment. With revenues falling, we've no alternative but to cut costs. My particular regret is the impact of these job losses amongst our skilled and dedicated workforce.”

The efficiency measures were prompted by a downturn in TV advertising in 2008 of up to 5%.

They also come two days ahead of the second phase of Ofcom's public service broadcasting review, which supports C4's view that its PSB remit should be protected in the future and calculates that the group faces an annual deficit of£60m to£100m by 2012.

On top of this, C4 calculates that additional public service commitments under its Next on 4 strategy will cost at least£50 million.

Earlier this month, Broadcast revealed that teen strand T4 was one of the first in line for budget cuts next year as part of a scaling back of commissioning spend during weekend daytime.

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment.