The point of Channel 4? We're building the future of British TV
Channel 4 has always and continues to make some of the best TV in the world at no cost to the public purse or to taxpayers. We're here to take risks, find new voices and nurture talent. And to champion under-represented voices and alternative views, leaving countless taboos broken in our wake.
It is why 60pc of our shows are new each year. They include Jack Rooke's hilarious and poignant Big Boys, fresh – and not just reheated – entertainment shows like The Piano and the Bafta-award winning The Jury: Murder Trial; and documentaries such as Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones and The Push: Murder on the Cliff.
This unique mix of shows – all given four and five-star reviews by this newspaper – helped Channel 4 streaming grow faster than almost all the big US streamers last year.
We're also proud of our significant social impact. Most recently our documentary Groomed: A National Scandal – from Anna Hall, who first blew the lid on this national scandal in her 2004 Channel 4 documentary – returned to screens to deliver a devastating indictment on society's continued failure to protect the vulnerable 20 years on, sparking an urgent national conversation about accountability and justice.
It's a story that no other broadcaster would touch, just like our investigations Russell Brand – In Plain Sight and Undercover: Exposing the Far Right. Public service journalism at its bravest and best.
We're equally delighted to be the UK's joint-top trusted TV news service, with Channel 4 News's fierce independence also securing an International Emmy and a Bafta.
Marlow laments the loss of shows like Eurotrash and The Word, but clearly missed our brilliantly chaotic, multi-Bafta-winning Late Night Lycett – exactly the kind of groundbreaking, provocative TV Channel 4 has always championed, but for a new generation of young viewers.
Meanwhile Rachel Johnson, writing for The Telegraph, praised our new provocative dating series Virgin Island as 'worthwhile public service television', and a welcome corrective to toxic influencers and damaging myths about relationships.
Next year, we'll launch one of the strongest drama slates in Channel 4's history – with stories from each nation of the UK, from writers like Russell T Davies, Daisy Haggard and Jack Thorne. Russell's new series is the eagerly anticipated final instalment in his extraordinary trilogy about gay British life, following the groundbreaking Queer as Folk and multi-award-winning It's a Sin.
We put lots of these shows directly on to platforms like YouTube or TikTok, because that's where young people find what they want to watch today. And while Marlow isn't the target demographic for the multiple award-winning Channel 4.0 (and nor do we want him to be), its raucous digital content is loved by young people – so much so that we're the first UK streamer to put our content on Spotify.
Channel 4's public purpose goes beyond the screen. It was set up by Margaret Thatcher's government with a unique duty to stimulate the independent production sector, drive innovation in broadcasting – challenging the duopoly of the BBC and ITV –and to commission programmes that showcase Britain in all of its diversity and create debate. And it is doing all these things and much more.
We remain the driving force behind the British indie sector, investing hundreds of millions each year into entrepreneurial creative businesses, keeping valuable TV and film rights in British hands, and spreading prosperity across the UK.
We're investing £10m each year in Britain's young people right across the UK through 4Skills and 4Schools and leading the charge calling for urgent regulation and action to give young people confidence and connection to the world around them amid growing up in a digital landscape flooded with misinformation.
Channel 4 has always welcomed competition. It drives quality, benefiting viewers.
But Channel 4 has a fundamentally different remit than global streamers. Ours is a long-term duty to British viewers, culture, and the creative industries, while global streamers – along with ITV and Channel 5 – ultimately answer to shareholders and profit over purpose.
Of course the streamers are strong originators, but their shows are built on the shoulders of our country's public service media. Just look at Netflix's catalogue, behind the roster of global hits is a bounty of British shows featuring British talent discovered and nurtured by UK broadcasters.
So, if you're still asking 'what's the point of Channel 4?', the answer is simple: to be different and to make a difference. To stay free-to-air and free-to-watch. To offer an alternative to the shareholder-driven priorities of ITV and the universality of the BBC. To back British talent, British IP and British values in a world increasingly dominated by global US conglomerates.
The future of media is uncertain, yes. But Channel 4 isn't afraid of that future. We're embracing it.
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