Channel 4: London HQ to remain as major regional strategy unveiled

After much toing and froing with the government, Channel 4 is to keep its London headquarters. However, the broadcaster is set to invest considerably more in the UK’s nations and regions as it undergoes the biggest structural change in its 35-year history.

In total, 300 of Channel 4’s 850 jobs are to be relocated outside of the capital as three new creative hubs are created in as-yet unspecified cities. A pitching process for the locations will begin next month, headed by C4’s sales director, Jonathan Allan.

The largest of the creative hubs will be known as Channel 4’s ‘National HQ’ and will be home to a new studio, with the “potential to be a base for daily programmes, and a new digital production unit.”

A new Channel 4 News bureaux will also be set up as part of the plans, with co-anchors covering the capital and the regions in the same broadcast.

Channel 4 will also increase its content spend in the nations and regions from its current quota of 35% to a new voluntary target of 50% by 2023. Channel 4 said this will result in a cumulative boost of over £250m in Channel 4’s commissioning spend outside of London.

In a press conference on Thursday, Channel 4’s CEO, Alex Mahon, said the broadcaster was a “unique institution” that had a remit that “demands it be diverse.”

Mahon said its commitment to diversity now extends to the way the broadcaster thinks about the nations and regions, adding that the changes in programming spend will support “up to 3000 additional production jobs in the nations and regions economy.”

Keeping its HQ in London will mean space will be opened up to smaller creative businesses that work with Channel 4.