Indie body says it was not consulted over plans for standalone company or introduction of M&A-focused Creative Investment Fund until last minute
Pact boss John McVay has called Channel 4’s plans to set up in-house production a “kick in the teeth” to indies.
Speaking to Broadcast, McVay said the trade body had no sight of the reforms nor been consulted by the broadcaster until the night before this morning’s annual results (21 May), when details emerged of the PSB’s plans to produce and own its own IP.
The Creative Investment Fund (CFI), announced today, effectively replaces C4’s existing Indie Growth Fund, which supported indies by taking a minority stake in them.
The CFI will focus on taking majority stakes in scalable indies with “a clear path” to 100% ownership.
This change is a “bitter blow” to the indie sector as it transfers ideas from the market to a publicly-owned body, McVay said, adding the proposals “go above and beyond” anything the PSB had indicated to Pact on this matter.
He added that Pact is also “deeply unhappy” about the prospect of the incoming in-house development team being based in C4, warning it would lead to a “canteen culture” of ideas being pitched informally to commissioners due to the team’s accessibility to them.
“The idea that the new development team will be based inside C4 gives them an advantage that no other supplier has. Our suggestion is they relocate the team to a physically separate location,” McVay stated.
In outlining its plans for the outfit, C4 said it would be “operationally separate” from the broadcaster’s commissioning, have standalone management and reporting lines to ensure fairness in commissioning.
At this morning’s Q&A, Broadcast asked C4 senior management whether Pact had visibility of C4’s in-house plans and was on board with them.
Chief operating officer and incoming interim chief exec Jonathan Allan replied: “We have a good conversation with John all the time. He’s been historically very supportive of the Indie Growth Fund.
“His questions are more about ‘how big is this going to be’ and ‘how quickly’? Just to reassure everybody in the room, it’s going to be carefully and gradual.”
Ofcom response
Media regulator Ofcom broadly welcomed C4’s 2024 results, noting its updated commitments to the nations and regions, its diversity representation and its efforts to bring news and current affairs content to younger audiences online.
However, Ofcom said that it has received “limited information” on how C4 will meet its objective to become a digital-first public service streamer by 2030 and is tracking the PSB’s progress “to hold itself accountable”. It has asked C4 for more information on this, but noted the incoming chair and chief exec may want to help plot these future goals and metrics.
It also noted that while C4 spent more on commissioning content from indies outside of London, but noted that investment outside England fell for the second consecutive year.
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