Analysis - Profile - Can MacDonald make C4's day?

If you were drawing up the dream CV for a ratings alchemist, a man or woman with the philosopher's stone to energise your tired schedules, you could do a lot worse than look to Channel 4's new daytime chief, Adam MacDonald.MacDonald, who gets his feet under the desk at C4 later this month, initially got into the BBC through marketing and statistical analysis. He joined BBC2 in 1992 and became channel scheduler three years later, where he spearheaded the push towards lifestyle formats such as Changing Rooms.In 1997 he joined BBC1, becoming head of scheduling in 1998 and taking digital launches such as BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge under his wing.He later went back to BBC1 as scheduler, where under Lorraine Heggessey, he took responsibility for changes such as the move of the main news bulletin to 22.00 in 2000 and the launch of a fourth episode of EastEnders. He can take a certain amount of the credit for the fact that the channel caught up with ITV1 in the ratings two years later.At the height of his powers, he joined independent Lion, where he has spent two years putting his knowledge of the "dark arts" to best use in programme-making and produced shows as Passport to the Sun for ITV1 and Boot Camp for BBC2. As his former boss Jeremy Mills, managing director of Lion explains, his schedule-led approach made him invaluable. "It's a different way of looking at commissioning," says Mills. "Adam had a great insight into opportunities; spots where an existing programme was weak."This is particularly relevant when you consider the immediate challenge MacDonald faces, bringing greater coherence to C4's currently hotchpotch daytime schedule. For many years daytime was treated as something of a wasteland by broadcasting executives, who, because of the nature of their jobs, had difficulty identifying with its audiences.New awareness of how working patterns are changing is challenging the cliches that students and young mums are the only people watching in the day, along with the misinformed idea that these audiences are not valuable.Daytime is also one area where the pressure from multichannel growth is felt most acutely, so terrestrial broadcasters are increasingly seeing the day as part of a defensive strategy.Another of MacDonald's former bosses, David Docherty, now chief executive of interactive TV producer YooMedia, identifies in his protege a sixth sense for what audiences want, combined with a sharp mind. "Adam is incredibly clever," says Docherty. "He completely resurrected BBC2's daytime with all those Peter Bazalgette programmes and went on to do much the same with BBC1."He's since got valuable experience as a programme-maker, so he's been on both sides of the fence. He will bring to the job a strong analytical mind and a pragmatism about what audiences want to watch."C4's share dipped below the crucial 10% mark last year and director of programmes Kevin Lygo believes daytime is an important and relatively inexpensive way to boost share across all day parts. Executives feel that there is real scope for growth in this area with more original programming, capitalising especially on the success of the property shows which have been so successful for the channel elsewhere in the schedule.The new daytime strategy at C4 also breaks with tradition in that MacDonald will be the first daytime chief to take responsibility for all programming between 06.00 and 18.00. This means he will have responsibility for two of C4's most important properties; the 06.00-09.00 breakfast slot and Richard & Judy.MacDonald's predecessor, Jo McGrath, brought Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan to the channel after a high-profile spat with the then ITV daytime chief, Maureen Duffy. C4 executives, from Kevin Lygo downwards, are likely to be keeping a beady eye on the all-important axis of MacDonald, Madeley, Finnigan and independent Cactus TV, headed by the formidable Amanda Ross, which produces This Morning, in case the handover is less than seamless.But Docherty says they've no worries there. "Adam is a diplomat," he says."Bear in mind this is someone who is used to telling programme-makers and stars their shows were being bumped to midnight."And then there is breakfast. C4 is still reeling from the road crash that was Rise. With reruns of Friends and other sitcoms currently in the slot, breakfast has been bumping along at a respectable average of about 400,000 viewers. But long term, executives need a strong identifiable property at breakfast and this will be one of the first things in MacDonald's in-tray.Janey Walker, managing editor of commissioning, says that MacDonald will have a wide brief. "This is quite a radical change in job description," she says. C4's mid-morning schools programming is likely to stay put.But Walker says that the mid-afternoon film is not a sacred cow. She refuses to be drawn on any plans in development, but hints at the possibility that C4 may look to compete more aggressively with ITV's successful lunchtime show Des and Mel.One major challenge for MacDonald will be making money go further. The 2003 daytime budget for C4, not including breakfast, was about £30m - not a huge amount for nine hours - and there is no immediate indication that there will be any significant increase on this. The challenge will be to bring coherence and new zest without alienating an audience which can be as resistant to change as Radio 4 listeners. It's one MacDonald will relish.