British commercial public broadcaster Channel Four announced today it would cut up to 200 jobs as part of a sweeping restructuring to cut slash costs and invest the savings in programmes.
Chief executive Mr Mark Thompson said the move, the most radical restructure in the channel's 20-year history, would help reduce the costs in 2003 by 33 per cent, or £36 million sterling.
Britain's TV industry is in the grips of a ratings war as advertising revenues tumble. Granada announced yesterday it has agreed to take over its fellow ITV licence holder Carlton Communications to gear up for tougher battle. The job cuts would involve 122 posts at the main Channel Four service. Within the next two weeks 4 Ventures will make a separate announcement about proposed job losses.
These job losses are in addition to 50 redundancies at Channel Four's film subsidiary, FilmFour, announced in July and a further 48 posts cut from across Channel Four and 4 Ventures in 2001 in response to the downturn in advertising.