Alex Mahon: Channel 4 Is Starting To “Buy Bigger Again” After “Horrendous” Time For UK Producers

Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon has said that the UK broadcaster is back in the market for big ideas after acknowledging that cuts have been “horrendous” for producers.

Speaking at the RTS London Convention on Tuesday, Mahon told a room full of British television luminaries that Channel 4 is “starting to buy and buy bigger again.”

It follows a turbulent ad downturn for the network, during which Channel 4 all but froze content spending, cut jobs, delayed premieres, and canceled shows including Four Weddings and Rise and Fall.

The decisions, as well as Channel 4’s communication during these dark days, enraged UK producers, who felt like they had been betrayed after defending the broadcaster during its battle against privatization.

“I think it was really hard, and relations were really rocky,” Mahon said. She added, however, that relations had thawed “now we’ve started spending again” and there was a recognition that Channel 4 was not alone in cutting content spending.

Mahon continued: “We didn’t expect there to be an advertising downturn. Nobody expected that to be a 10% hit, that’s £100M off our top line … that was really, really hard for them [producers]. So I do understand that rage.”

Her comments echoed those of Ian Katz, Channel 4’s chief content officer, at the Edinburgh TV Festival in August. Katz said the ad market was “wheezing back into life” and the picture is “much brighter.”

Since then, Mahon revealed that Channel 4 had its best commercial week since 2012 during the Paris Paralympics and that the network’s youth share increased during the games.