Channel 4’s CEO Andy Duncan said back in 2005: ‘Regarding other forms of commercial income, I’ve just restructured to grow our 4Ventures businesses more effectively and we’ll continue to explore profitable joint ventures. We are only expecting to make around break-even this year on these activities, and to hit the numbers in our model in the future, we need to grow them very aggressively. Ofcom endorse this approach.’

Continuing our recent theme of Channel 4’s financial future, I found it interesting to read that Channel 4’s new publication Popworld Pulp just went bust after two issues. Stephen Brook of the Guardian called it ‘one of the biggest failures in recent times’.

This highlights a potential problem with Ofcom’s review: With an expert consulting group (L.E.K.) issuing a very bearish report on Channel 4’s future financial performance that Ofcom seemingly endorses, there’s a very real possibility that everyone just works toward the future that has been predicted. And failures along the way — like this magazine failure — will provide ammunition to those critics who say either: (i) a state-owned-entreprise will ultimately prove incapable of doing well in a more-competitive media marketplace; or (ii) with Ofcom apparently ready to suggest public subsidy in the event of problems, Channel 4’s commercial ventures might be half-hearted from the very start.

Of course, I have no idea how much skin Channel 4 had in this commercial publishing venture. It might have been a very modest loss or no loss whatsoever. Nevertheless, the time may be fast approaching when the very notion of a commercially-focused, state-owned broadcaster starts to lose its appeal.