Search results matching tag 'andy duncan'

Channel 4 / YouTube deal confirms Andy Duncan is still in the game

1641923 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:16:00 GMT

Channel 4’s departing chief executive Andy Duncan has no plans to go quietly at the end of this year, as proved by last week’s announcement of a ground-breaking content tie-up between the broadcaster and YouTube.

By the time Duncan is carrying the last of his belongings from the shiny building in Victoria, internet users should be able to view a selection of ad-funded C4 content, including Skins and Hollyoaks, via Google’s video site for free.

The move could be a significant development towards generating digital revenues for both C4 and YouTube.

The non-exclusive, three year deal allows C4 to keep control of its own advertising sales, and some non-C4 content to boot, while reportedly giving the broadcaster the larger share of revenue.

Martin McNulty from internet marketing agency TrafficBroker agrees the partnership has the potential to be very interesting for C4, noting it "opens the broadcaster up to a much bigger advertising market, that is liquid". He suggests that if traditional content providers can tap into the auction-type ad sales model that has already made adwords a success for Google, it could be a major break through.

Just as significantly, the deal is also the first real sign that exiting Duncan has a list of ‘unfinished business’ concerning commercial partnership which he has every intention of completing.

Last month, he told me he hoped to be able to announce "two or three commercial partnerships" before he steps down as CEO, and refused to rule out a tie-up with BBC Worldwide.

The deal, already dismissed by most as being dead in the water, gained renewed credibility yesterday when Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw called talks between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide "encouraging."

Whether the BBC is now more minded to play ball or not remains to be seen, but Duncan clearly has a point to prove and his legacy in mind, which could make for an interesting final quarter. Watch this space.

Ouch. Luke Johnson fires parting shots at Andy Duncan?

1704826 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:10:00 GMT

Now that Andy Duncan and Channel 4 have finally agreed terms for his departure - a mere £585,000 severance package from the apparently cash-strapped broadcaster - all eyes must turn to who will replace him.

In a particularly revealing comment, Channel 4's chairman, Luke Johnson, said that Duncan's successor 'must have considerable experience of TV. They must have a vision and an understanding of the digital world.... They need to bring different ideas and energy. They need to have stature.'

Whatever can he mean?

ITV's director of programming Peter Fincham is the name being bandied around as the obvious candidate to fill Duncan's trainers. But given that insiders claim that part of the reason that Channel 4's board became dysfunctional was that Duncan clashed with his mercurial head of television, Kevin Lygo, to the extent that their relationship had irretrievably broken down, getting a fellow programmer in as Lygo's boss looks an unlikely move.

Given the changes that are going on at Channel 4 and ITV, it's unlikely that a new chief executive will be appointed any time soon - and possibly not until after Johnson's departure.

With a new chairman - or possibly chairwoman - who may be closer allied to the likely incoming Tory government, Johnson's comments could perhaps be seen as more of a bitchy parting shot at what he considers Duncan's deficiencies rather than the prerequisites for his replacement.

Peter Fincham clear favourite to replace Andy Duncan

673734 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:21:00 GMT

So Channel 4 finally confirmed that its chief executive Andy Duncan is to step down at the end of the year. After grappling for months with C4's funding hole, Duncan looks set to leave along with chairman, Luke Johnson, at Christmas.

The search is on for a replacement. But many in television reckon that all bets should be off as Peter Fincham, ITV's director of television, is such a red hot favourite. The sort of respected programmer C4, whatever it looks like in the future, should have at its helm.

Fincham's supporters suggest that this becomes even more likely should Tony Ball arrive at ITV as chief executive. The former Sky man's no-nonsense approach may be what ITV needs but might not sit well with Fincham's creative ethos.

So Fincham for C4 by the end of the year then. But whatever happens it is time for change at two of Britain's top TV companies. Duncan's resignation to the C4 board coincided with an inauspicious week for ITV which has lost both the real and the PR battle over CRR. Michael Grade staked a great deal on its removal and must be disappointed at the Competition Commission's decision to keep it in place. You have to sympathise with Grade at having to manage ITV through such as vicious downturn and, to a degree, he has made strides in restoring its reputation for strong content but he knew it was time to move on.

Meanwhile Duncan and his C4 team have seemed lost in a maze, running first this way and that in a bid to find a way out but becoming increasingly lost.

Both ITV and C4 sorely need new leadership and soon.

ITV decision to launch ITV1+1 channel begs questions

1704826 — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:10:00 GMT

Does ITV know something about the Competition Commission's final decision on CRR that we don't?

Already the broadcaster has an ITV1+1 service lined up and ready to start transmitting from the beginning of next month - coincidentally the CC is expected to make its ruling on what 'son of CRR' should look like this month.

No-one really expects CRR to be abolished but the decision to launch a +1 of its main channel indicates that ITV is confident enough that any changes will not make this unfavourable, which has prevented it from doing so in the past.

So what will a new CRR, that manages to both convince the regulators that it is not anti-competitive but allows ITV to potentially cannibalise audience share from ITV1 without damaging its share in negotiations, look like? Answers please.

Also, achieving this Holy Grail will end up being a nicer epitaph for outgoing chairman Michael Grade than either of his opposite numbers at Channel 4 - Luke Johnson and Andy Duncan who are also leaving at the end of this year - look like getting.

BoJo's £250k 'chicken feed'

1704826 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:36:00 GMT

I happen to like Boris Johnson. I think he provides a bit of much-needed colour to the political scene, and he seems better at his job than that annoying nasal Red Ken but I don't live in London so what do I know.

But is he worth £250k for a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph? Yes - if they are stupid enough to pay it.

With typical Johnson disregard and seemingly oblivious to the prevailing mood of the nation, Johnson describes this as 'chicken feed'. Well it's not - even when compared to some of the eye-watering salaries available at ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC.

Finally some sense seems to be emerging - the BBC has suspended bonuses for its top execs (quite why they or anyone else on the public payroll needs bonuses I've never been sure) so DG Mark Thompson will only draw a basic of £647k. Similar moves have been made over at 'cash-strapped' Channel 4 - chief exec Andy Duncan has agreed to get out of bed for £600k a year - down nearly £300k on 2008. Which is nice of him.

But Johnson's burden on the taxpayer is just £140k for his salary as London mayor and I don't really care how much PLCs pay in salaries or columnists (and there are some shockingly bad ones on payrolls) as market forces will prevail.

So I suggest that given that the Daily Telegraph's parent company Telegraph Media Group has just posted a loss of £15.7m for 2008, Johnson enjoys the 'chicken feed' for as long as they are stupid enough to pay it. Soon, he may have to revert to newt feed rations.

Andy Duncan would do well to learn from greedy MPs

1704826 — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:10:00 GMT

So the Lib Dems use their expenses on biscuits and trouser presses, the Tories on chandeliers and moats and Labour on loo seats and damp rot.

While the revelations in The Daily Telegraph have caused acute ambarrassment to all MPs, they also go to prove that most political stereotypes are in fact correct. They have also helped lift the paper's sales by nearly 100,000 copies a day according to reports so all in all it's been the story of the year.

Nonetheless it was difficult not to have some sympathy with Labour peer Lord Foulkes who got in a bitter argument with a BBC News 24 presenter about her own remuneration - 92 grand of licence fee money to read the autocue on an obscure digital channel seems equally excessive. Today we learn that 80 members of staff at Channel 4 get paid over 100k a year, for which Andy Duncan put up a rather lame defence.

While the politicians have moved quickly to acknowledge that they are over-paid, wouldn't it be nice if this started a wider debate and that the BBC and C4 start cutting their cloth accordingly. If the Daily Telegraph achieves that then it will have done a greater service then it initially set out to do.

Continuous repeats of Come Dine With Me could be Channel 4's apocalyptic future

1704826 — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:07:00 GMT

Channel 4's annual report, published today, contains the usualy hand-wringing statements about what might happen if some sort of settlement on its future funding model is decided.

But instead of Andy Duncan and Luke Johnson going on about their editorial highlights of 2008 (of which there are many) while claiming that editorial spend is now going to be reduced by at least 10%, thereby implying that we won't see such gems as The Inbetweeners and The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, why don't they just make policy makers sit through an episode of Come Dine With Me to show how bleak the channel's future could be?

This series, which appears to be on a loop on More4, consists of boring people holding a dinner party with a camera in the corner. Now I love my food shows - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Masterchef and even the Great British Menu - but this series is so bad that if this is the future of C4 then I'm tempted to organise a whip-round myself.

Channel 4's current predicament is partly of its own making

1704826 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:12:00 GMT

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