Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan is having to do what his predecessor, Mark Thompson, did before him - make a series of massive cuts that more careful management would have made unnecessary.
4Radio is the most obvious example - it is testament to Channel 4's ambition that it bothered trying to make a fist of what looked blindingly obvious a complete turkey to most, but this over-confidence has resulted in an embarrassing £9m of unnecessary expenditure at a time when it is pleading poverty.
Does this misadventure remind anyone of Film4?
It has also shut down its third-party sales unit (which history has shown have never been big money-spinners) and a restructure that has resulted in the departure of its marketing director Polly Cochrane as well as other key commercial and advertiser-facing staff.
Of course any fule kno that we are facing unprecedented economic times but more care and less flights of fancy would have made what's beginning to look increasingly like a bloodbath rather less painful
