Channel 4 reports 1% decline in revenue as broadcaster responds to MAFS rape allegations
Channel 4 reported a -1% year-on-year decline in total revenue to £1.03bn in 2025, with the broadcaster’s leadership highlighting its “resilience” amid the “cyclical and structural” pressures on the UK TV advertising market.
Total advertising revenue declined -2% to £922m. Within this, digital ad revenue grew 13% to £346m, now comprising 34% of Channel 4’s total revenues, ahead of its 2025 target of 30%.
Notably, 44% of the broadcaster’s revenue is now derived from non-linear advertising revenue, and 10% from non-advertising revenue.
Chief financial officer Lucy Thomas praised the broadcaster’s “sustained cost discipline”, noting Channel 4’s total content spend of £640m last year (of which £185m was invested in content produced in the ‘Nations & Regions’) and flat year-on-year non-content spend.
But she warned the TV ad market “remains challenging” in 2026, which she attributed to “soft economic growth”, predicted declines in UK GDP, and “continued caution from advertisers due to ongoing geopolitical events.”
CEO Priya Dogra, who began her tenure in March, outlined that the public-service broadcaster is considering more drastic organisational changes as part of an effort to become more financially sustainable.
“The landscape for Channel 4 has changed and shifted materially, so we’re defining the next phase, one that will require sharper, often harder choices about where we focus, how we compete and how we operate,” Dogra said, adding Channel 4 is “looking closely at the shape, structure and size of the organisation.”
She continued: “We, I, have the responsibility to evolve our business.”
Married at First Sight operations under external review
The financial report comes as the broadcaster is facing scandal over allegations, first detailed on Monday night’s edition of the BBC’s Panorama, in which three women alleged they had been abused or raped by their on-screen husbands during the filming of Married at First Sight UK (MAFS), one of Channel 4’s most popular unscripted titles.
The annual report celebrated MAFS UK as the channel’s most streamed show, up 10% on 2024 numbers, and within the report Dogra highlighted it as an “audience favourite”.
A group of MPs submitted letters today to both Channel 4 and media regulator Ofcom, raising questions about their actions. The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s chairwoman, Caroline Dinenage MP, called the allegations “horrifying” and said they “raise serious concerns over whether enough is being done to protect people taking part in reality television”.
Dogra said she was made aware of the allegations in April when contacted by the BBC, though Channel 4 chief content officer Ian Katz told reporters he was “aware of some of [the allegations]” when they were first raised. He said: “Based on everything that I know and the information we had, I think we made the right calls”.
An external review is underway and is expected to be completed “later this summer”. Dogra and Katz both reiterated that it is not Channel 4’s role to investigate or adjudicate the alleged actions of the men accused of rape and sexual assault on the show, and thus the external review is limited to an investigation of the broadcaster’s own safeguarding procedures.
Dogra added: “We do believe we took the right decisions at the time, but I wanted a second look at it.”
The reality programme is produced by independent production company CPL. Lawyers for the company told the BBC its welfare system was “gold standard” and that it acted appropriately.
“I have watched the programme, and I have heard the women’s accounts, which are very troubling,” Dogra said of the BBC’s Panorama investigation. “Their distress is clear, and for that, I am, of course, deeply sorry.”
Audiences for Married at First Sight UK sometimes exceed 3m. Holiday group Tui has “paused” its sponsorship of the show following the allegations.
The entire back catalogue of the programme was taken off streaming ahead of the Panorama episode, which Dogra explained was done “out of an abundance of caution” and to avoid “stoking speculation” about the allegations or allowing audiences to try to identify the women who made them. “I believe that’s the responsible thing to do in the circumstances,” Dogra said.
She added the financial impact of such a decision was not considered: “We will deal with the financial impact if we have to. I don’t know that that will be a relevant factor in our decision-making; it wasn’t at the time, and it won’t be going forward.”
Looking ahead, series six of Married at First Sight UK has already been “substantially filmed” and is “currently in edit”, according to Katz. He added that the decision to air the show will depend on “what, if any, recommendations emerge from the review”, but that the show has not yet been cancelled.
Channel 4’s market position if the Sky-ITV acquisition goes through
Apart from a challenging TV ad market and the Married at First Sight allegations, Channel 4 is also facing potential headwinds over Sky’s possible acquisition of ITV’s Media & Entertainment business, which could reportedly be agreed within weeks.
When asked how this might affect Channel 4’s business prospects, Dogra noted the deal “hasn’t been formally announced” but that the broadcaster would make “the right representations to the CMA and others” in due course, should it occur.
She raised the prospect that the deal could impact the production of news programming from ITN, “which is hugely important to how we provide news, how 5 provides news,” and that it could distort the TV ad market.
“The majority of how we make money today is in the ad market for television,” she said. “What we don’t want to see as a result of the merger is any distortion in competition in the ad market.
“So at the right time, we’ll have the conversation with the CMA and others to make sure the market remains competitive. That’s important for us as well as for advertisers and agencies who buy TV airtime.”