Those who work closely

with Lygo talk of his

‘visceral sense of popular
television, his almost
instinctive ability to
schedule effectively’

issues. He appeared before the

All pictures: Channel 4

Culture, Media and Sport Select

Committee to give evidence on NAME:
Luke John
the BBC charter review. He also
led C4 opposition to the merger
of Granada and Carlton.
Aged 49, he is an account- JOB:
son
AME:
Chairman
ant who joined in 1981
N
e v i n Lygo from Peat Marwick Mitch-

K ell as company secretary

vision
and controller of finance,

JOB:
o f t e l e becoming finance direc-

Director
tor from 1988 to 1997. He is the
authority on the channel’s history. But he also nego-
tiated the Attheraces “deal from hell”, a two-year nightmare
for Woodward to unpick.
4Ventures was formed in 2000 and finally returned its first
profit, £4.1m last year. Woodward has devised a strategy
that is the opposite

Woodward has
of BBC Worldwide,
which is being
examined as part of
devised a strategy that a thoroughgoing
review of all the cor-
is the opposite of BBC poration’s commer-
cial activities and
Worldwide; he has also looks likely to be
broken up. “We’re
proposed expansion trying to create a
single organisation
into commercial radio and we’ve made an
awful lot of
progress,” he says.
Big Brother 5, with its integrated website, is seen as the
NAME: best example of this marriage. Grand Designs has belatedly
launched a dedicated magazine after five years. Richard &
Rob Woodward Judy’s alignment with the book club is another commercial fit.
But Woodward knows the approach doesn’t work for all
JOB: genres, and that the last thing anyone wants is for commer-
cial considerations to fundamentally change output.
Commercial director This autumn’s big event, Hall of Fame, which will select
the best music from the 1950s onwards, is expected to shift
a lot of ancillary products and is the first significant commis-
Hemera

sion to attract money from 4Ventures. Woodward has

ing programmes but that the advertising
side can suggest where they are scheduled. Some C4 pro-
grammes make profits, others are “remit programmes”,
including Channel 4 News.
“We’d never not consider doing it; we will always have a
news, an hour long; it will never make money,” he says.
The commercial genres that Woodward’s team are con-
centrating on exploiting are reality television, music, film,
entertainment, comedy, and news clips.
As Woodward has taken control of commercial areas,
Scott spends more time handling compliance and regulatory
also proposed expansion into commercial radio.
The top team has been working hard on the
benefits of changing C4’s status, the pre-
requisite for taking a lead in the next round
of merger activity.
Part of the current debate with Ofcom is detailed eco-
nomic modelling about its apparently declining fortunes
in a purely digital age. But the heavy lobbying of Gordon
Brown’s Treasury advisers for trust status is said to have
raised hackles, and been somewhat counter productive.
It is to these big strategic issues that Duncan must bring
clarity and leadership. ±

Television September 2004 11

09-11 C4 - Brown 3 5/8/04, 8:30 am