When we set out our 4 All the UK strategy in 2018, it sparked the largest structural shake-up in Channel 4’s history. To truly fulfil our remit to stand up for diversity, take creative risks and inspire change, we knew we’d need to change too. We’d need to look and feel different, behave differently and most importantly, get outside the M25. It’s about representing a diversity of thought and opinions from across the UK, and across all of our content.
We have now established our office in Leeds as our National HQ, as well as offices that act as creative hubs in Bristol and Glasgow, in addition to our already thriving 4Sales team in Manchester.
Our Nation & Regions team work across the UK ensuring that our commitments to our 4 All the UK strategy are met. We’ve committed to upping our spend on creative content in the Nations and Regions – from 35% to 50% of main channel UK commissions by 2023, worth up to £250 million more in total. And even though Covid-19 threw a sizeable spanner in the works, we’ve created hundreds of new jobs across the UK and established closer relationships with indies based in the Nations and Regions.
We are now broadcasting Steph’s Packed Lunch live from Leeds Dock in the heart of the city – bringing a blast of energy to our Daytime line-up. We’ve established 4Studio (https://careers.channel4.com/4jobs/4Studio) our new in-house digital content studio, which is a key future-facing part of the business. Within one year of its launch, 4Studio has become the UK’s most viewed social branded content partner, achieving more than 11 billion views of our content across digital media, and amassing more than 29 million views across Facebook and Instagram alone. And to turbocharge our efforts to find, nurture and develop talent in the Nations and Regions, we’ve launched a new training and development initiative called 4Skills. The programme, unveiled on the first anniversary of our national HQ in Leeds, aims to attract people from diverse backgrounds into broadcasting and production, address skills gaps and help those who are already in the industry to progress their careers.
