Channel 4 - A History: from Big Brother to The Great British Bake Off

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