ITV Hits Back Over Channel 4 Funding

Channel 4 chairman, Sir Michael Bishop, and chief executive, Michael Grade, yesterday met with Peter Brooke, the National Heritage secretary, to persuade him to remove present funding arrangements, which they say could result in Channel 4 paying £500m to ITV over 10 years. They claim this would go straight into ITV profits rather than funding programmes.

Chairman of the ITV Council, Leslie Hill, said today that present funding arrangements had to be maintained in the face of growing competition. He claimed that the difference between ITV and Channel 4 is that ITV’s ratings success is built upon original UK production, whereas Channel 4’s is built on imported, largely American, material. He drew attention to the ITC’s recent Performance Review:

“It is notable that the total output of programmes specifically made or commissioned for Channel 4 fell below 50 per cent”

The Broadcasting Act provides the flexibility to review the existing arrangements in 1997, which is when ITV believes it would be appropriate to review safety-net provisions, not the initial 16-month period proposed by Channel 4.

C4 TOUR DE FRANCE COVERAGE

Kronenbourg is paying £250,000 to sponsor Channel 4’s Tour De France coverage for the second year running. The package delivers 105 seconds of sponsor’s credits during each of the 23 peak-time broadcasts running between July 2-24.

WIMBLEDON (CABLE) COVERAGE

Wire TV has agreed a sponsorship package with Colgate-Palmolive for its coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.