Channel 4 Announces Spring Schedule Highlights

Channel 4 has announced a raft of new drama, entertainment and factual programmes to bolster its Spring schedule following the conclusion of several ratings winners in the next two months.

The channel will undoubtedly suffer audience losses as three of the nation’s favourite TV programmes come to an end this year with Friends, Sex And The City and Faisier all bowing out by the end of March. To combat this, new head of programming at Channel 4, Kevin Lygo has announced several new series and the return of a clutch of old favourites to help minimise damage.

Bo Selecta, Black Books and Darren Brown will all make a return, along with newly commissioned NY-LON, a romantic drama set and filmed on location in New York and London.

Channel 4 will also rely heavily on The Simpsons, recently poached from the BBC, to prop up tea-time viewing slots but are expected to struggle following Graham Norton’s defection to the BBC.

The announcement of Channel 4’s new schedule line up comes after chief executive Mark Thompson quashed rumours last week that he is planning to apply for the position of BBC director general. In interviews, Thompson commented “I’m right in the middle of an incredibly exciting job at Channel 4. I think we’ve achieved a lot in the past couple of years, but I think there’s plenty more to do.” (see Thompson Claims He Is Unlikely To Make BBC Move).

Last month also saw the announcement that, while the station’s audience share fell below the ten percent mark for the first time in over a decade during 2003, profits had been tripled as a wide-ranging effort to reduce costs began to bear fruit (see Outlook Improves For Channel 4 As Profits Triple).

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