Secretary of State Lucy Frazer addresses future of TV
Broadcasters, production companies and streamers must ensure “this industry is synonymous with talent, opportunity and inclusivity, and not the scandals of #MeToo”.
Broadcasters, production companies and streamers must ensure “this industry is synonymous with talent, opportunity and inclusivity, and not the scandals of #MeToo”.
Introducing the first session of the Convention, Cambridge Chair and Channel 4 CEO, Alex Mahon, posed a stark question: “Is there simply too much content?”
And then a follow-up – “And with content as king, hasn’t distribution now become King Kong?” – before offering some typically honest answers.
“We’ve been in a frantic race for eyeballs, advertising dollars and subscription cash, and that race, like some kind of gigantic global grand prix, has been driven by hubristic spending on video creation.
"Five months ago the Channel 4 team set out to determine what the new ‘video day’ for consumers is really made of, with an original research project. I will talk a little about what we did and what we found and then some experts will join me on stage to help interpret our research.
To make sure we were properly prepared for this RTS discussion, we set ourselves some harder questions than just ‘what is the video day?’:
Ask Alex Mahon to name the best bits about her job and without hesitation she says it’s when outstanding programmes receive the recognition they deserve. It could be a breakthrough comedy such as Derry Girls or Russell T Davies’s bittersweet It’s a Sin – or the recent Cannes Grand Prix winner, Film4’s The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s German-language Holocaust film based on the Martin Amis novel.
The biennial Cambridge Convention will take place on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 September 2023 at King’s College, Cambridge.
The agenda-setting programme, titled Too Much to Watch, will bring together influential thought leaders and prominent executives to debate the opportunities and impact of changing consumption habits reshaping global television.
When, at the beginning of November last year, Channel 4 celebrated its 40th anniversary with a lavish party, complete with a sit-down dinner, at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, many of those attending wondered if they were witnessing the end of an era.
Session chair Amol Rajan: Did you interpret the new culture secretary saying that she is re-examining the business case for privatisation as implying that she and Prime Minister Liz Truss are not as committed to privatisation as their predecessors?
Alex Mahon: We’re in discussion with the DCMS about where they want to end up and what the options are. I imagine they’ll look at the things that I like: facts, data and evidence. Then we’ll see what the coming weeks and months hold as they think about that.
The decision on whether to privatise Channel 4 should be based on “data and evidence” and not, by implication, on ideology, Alex Mahon told the audience gathered in Cambridge. The broadcaster’s CEO was speaking shortly before Government minister John Whittingdale – a last-minute stand-in for his reshuffled colleague Oliver Dowden – was due to address the RTS Convention.