Channel 4

This book covers a dramatic decade in the fortunes of Britain¿s quirkiest broadcaster. It opens in 2009, with the realisation that Channel 4¿s biggest money spinner, Big Brother, had become a toxic asset and would have to be discarded, at the same time as advertising revenues were shrinking in the wake of the 2008 financial crash. Maggie Brown¿s compelling narrative, which draws on interviews with key players in Channel 4¿s story and unique access to the broadcaster¿s archives, takes us inside the boardroom battles, changes in senior management and commissioning teams, interventions by the media regulator Ofcom, and the channel¿s response to a rapidly-changing media and political landscape. Brown describes how the channel, under its new chief executive David Abraham, successfully fought off the threat of privatisation, which became a reality after the Conservatives¿ general election victory in 2015. The price for remaining publicly funded was a substantial relocation of Channel