National Business - Media structures and ownership

Channel 4

Channel 4 is one of the largest and most watched television channels in the uk.  Known for its massive comedy shows (peepshow, father ted) and investigative series (dispatches) and phenomenal drama series (homeland, the sopranos).  Channel 4 while still focusing on the vertical structure they have built with their television compnay has gone slightly more horizontal.  As in they have introduced websites and interactivity to their company.  investing in 4od a interactive playback website allowing everyone to watch shows that they have missed at anytime during the week and streaming them to their device.  And in the past year or so they have expanded their reach into interactivty with the internet by featuring twitter on a majority of their programmes.  Channel 4 has not got a massive horizontal business structure yet, but is starting to use it more and more.

The Channel 4 company much like Johnsons press PLC uses a board of directors to make its corporate decisions, meaning that there is not one power head in the channel 4, all decisions have to be passed through the board of directors before being allowed.  The current chairman of channel 4 is Lord Burns GCB.