Restructure at Channel 4

LONDON: Channel 4’s recently installed CEO David Abraham has announced a significant restructure at the British broadcaster, including a 25-percent cut in senior management and the merger of all commissioning and creative activities for TV and online under a new chief creative officer.

The chief creative officer post, yet to be filled, will combine Kevin Lygo’s former role as director of TV and content and Julian Bellamy’s current role as head of Channel 4. Bellamy will fill the post in the interim and has been invited to apply for the job as recruitment gets under way.

“We are going further than any other broadcaster has yet gone to fully integrate our commissioning and content teams as we anticipate the tipping point in the convergence of television with other media," Abraham said. "We need to fundamentally evolve the way we work in response to this convergence, becoming leaner, more efficient and blending a multiplatform approach into the center of the organization, rather than leaving ‘new’ media in its own isolated silo. Combining our two most senior creative roles also takes out a layer of management and is intended to offer our commissioning heads a clear and direct route to the creative center of the organization, delegating more responsibility to them and empowering them to pursue creative innovation across all platforms. We will also look at a further restructuring of our commissioning teams to again reduce layers of management and overlap and offer our independent suppliers that same direct route into our senior creative decision makers."

Following the restructure, the number of executives reporting directly to Abraham will fall from 13 to 6, including the chief creative officer. Twelve positions will be eliminated by year end.

Channel 4 has also announced the promotion of Anne Bulford, who is currently group finance director, to COO, with oversight for finance, legal and compliance, commercial affairs, strategy, commercial and business development and technology operations. Two senior posts will be added: director of audience technologies and insight and an external communications role.

Abraham concluded: “The principles guiding this restructure are a desire to encourage increased collaboration and team working and to unite our creative teams behind a shared vision across all platforms. By stripping out layers of management throughout the organization, we aim to ensure Channel 4 is structured most effectively to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that arise from the increasing convergence of digital media.”