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DIGITAL SPRAY: Channel 4, Innovation and Youth Programming in the Age of New Technologies

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DIGITAL SPRAY: Channel 4, Innovation and Youth Programming in the Age of New Technologies DIGITAL SPRAY: Channel 4, innovation and youth programming in the age of new technologies Michael O’Neill (BA (Hons), MA) This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth November 2013 School of Creative Arts, Film and Media Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries University of Portsmouth ’Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award.” WORD COUNT: 78868 WORDS ABSTRACT This thesis provides an analysis of youth television, digital content and Channel 4-as-public service broadcaster and has three primary aims. Firstly, the thesis aims to provide a series of "forgotten histories", offering a corrective to pre-existing narratives surrounding Channel 4, extensively utilising untapped resources (the Channel 4 Press Packs), along with a collection of digital archive materials. This is done in order to re-evaluate the broadcaster's purpose, strategies and programming at a vital moment in its history, using these neglected moments to interrogate Channel 4's current relationship with youth audiences and content. Secondly, the thesis aims to reframe Channel 4's history through the lens of its youth provision, as the targeting of this demographic was seen as the "least worst" way of balancing its role as public service publisher and commercial corporation. This choice is discussed regarding the long-term impact upon Channel 4's identity and strategy, whilst offering a nuanced conceptualisation of what constitutes “youth” and how Channel 4 addressed it. Lastly, I aim to introduce a series of original conceptual frameworks in order to illustrate Channel 4's longstanding lack of consistency in terms of commissioning, promotion and organisational strategy, culminating in the use of the term spray. Spray encapsulates both the post-broadcast fluidity within British broadcasting, as well as Channel 4's chaotic and transitory strategic choices as it grapples with its historical identity and purpose. This thesis highlights the contradictory nature of Channel 4, with its opposing remit obligations of public service innovation and commercial viability, with the disparity between its promotional rhetoric and the production reality being pronounced. Through discussion of critically ignored content and programming strands, “forgotten histories” are produced in order to understand contemporary broadcasting, whilst extrapolating its future direction. The thesis also articulates the uneven and variable impact of new media consumption practices, promotional strategies and technological innovation upon both Channel 4 and its current (and future) audiences through the deployment of original conceptual frameworks and extensive analysis of Channel 4's multiplatform/digital policy. DISSEMINATION CONFERENCES "'Do Not Sleep' - How the forgotten history of Channel 4's late-night TV articulates the neglected aspirations and future directions of a broadcaster in flux." Presented at CEISR/CSL/CCCR Postgraduate Study Day: Diversity, Change and Imagination, University of Portsmouth, Wednesday 16th May 2012. "Digital Ash for a Digital Urn – 360 Degree Commissioning, Multiplatform Branding and how Educational Broadcasting Projects Offer Fanfare, But Little Fandom." Presented at Audiences, Users and Producers of Public Service Content: An International Symposium, Canterbury Christ Church University, Wednesday 23rd May 2012. "Remembering Forgotten Histories? Digital archives, televisual ephemera and challenging dominant discourse through the Wayback Machine." Presented at MeCCSA-PGN 2012 Conference, Loughborough University, Tuesday 18th September 2012. “We (can't) remember it for you wholesale” - How Channel 4's re-imagining of television's past allows it to create its multiplatform future? Presented at MeCCSA-PGN 2013 Conference, University of East Anglia, Wednesday 3rd July 2013. “'Born Risky/Dying Risk-free' – The dissonance between televisual past and promotional present signals Channel 4's uncertain multiplatform future.” Presented at New Directions in Film and Television Production Studies Conference, Bristol Watershed, Tuesday 14th April 2015. CHAPTERS & RESEARCH PAPERS “Digital Ash for a Digital Urn – Channel 4's struggle with multiplatforming digital public service." In Gulyas, A. & Hammer, F. (eds) (2013) Public Service Media in the Digital Age: International Perspectives (pp. 37-52). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press. "Remembering Forgotten Histories? Digital archives, televisual ephemera and challenging dominant discourses through the Wayback Machine." Article under consideration by Critical Studies in Television (Ephemeral Television: Special Issue). “'We put the media in (anti)social media' – Channel 4's struggles with unofficial archives, second-screen viewing and the increasingly visible agency of its youth audiences” in Geraghty, L. (Ed) (2015) Popular Media Cultures: Fans, Audiences and Narrative Worlds. London: Palgrave. “Reflecting your heart's desire: 'Project Black Mirror' and faux-Kickstarting Siri's mind-reading routine.” In Media Res, Black Mirror theme week (4-8 May 2015) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank my family, especially my grandparents, for their unwavering and long-suffering support. I would like to thank Bournemouth University library and the BFI library for allowing me access to materials that subsequently reshaped the direction of this thesis, with many productive hours spent in the former's special collections room. I would also like to thank Justin Smith, Paul McDonald, Linda Kaye, Ieuan Franklin, Laura Mayne and Rachel Keene – also known as the “Channel 4 and British Film Culture” research project team – for welcoming me into your meetings and allowing me to bend your ears regarding the work I was avoiding/working diligently on. I would like to thank Sally Shaw for retaining temper/sanity whilst simultaneously offering wise counsel in the process of sharing an office with me. Finally, I would like to thank Lincoln Geraghty for helping to hammer this thesis into something coherent and vaguely convincing. Thanks for acting as my therapist/supervisor for these long, hard years. You may now finally breathe that sigh of relief that you've been holding in the whole time. CONTENTS Introduction 1 Remembering forgotten histories – C4's relationship with youth, public service and its own sense of identity becoming lost in the spray Chapter One 18 Youth and innovation at Channel 4 – The pre-history of spray Chapter Two 52 “Do not sleep” - Channel 4's late-night experiments in paratelevision showcased its balancing act between innovation and exploitation Chapter Three 79 T(4) and toast – How C4's Sunday breakfast selection showed an appetite for celebrity, lifestyle content and consolidation through recycling Chapter Four 109 Education, schools and learning – The three blunted prongs of Channel 4's partial public service commitment Chapter Five 145 'Neither one thing nor the other' – How E4 and BBC3 represented public service broadcasting's uneven solution to the digital multichannel problem Chapter Six 173 The beginning of the endgame – The tale of Channel 4's uneven lurch towards a future beyond the televisual Conclusion 238 How the teenaged spectres of Channel 4's past are haunting its present and stifling its future Bibliography (Academic Sources) 253 Bibliography (Industry Sources) 265 Bibliography (Channel 4 Sources) 277 Videography 279 Introduction: Remembering forgotten histories – Channel 4's relationship with youth, public service and its own sense of identity becoming lost in the spray Thesis rationale Over time, the most powerful versions of history are reconfirmed, they become sedimented down, pressed into new narratives and accounts. These always involve taken-for-granted assumptions which in turn shape the relationship of television’s legislators, trainees, practitioners and historians in an imaginary past and an even more speculative future. (Branston 1998, p.51) The above quote articulates a truism and a key issue in the production of televisual histories – that they are context-sensitive and that they are often positioned in a fashion that paints the object of study in a particular and subjective manner. This positioning is often based on the accepted theoretical or historical wisdom of that particular moment. What makes matters even more problematic is that the scribes behind these histories are often the ones most closely affiliated with the object of study, with their interpretations of the data coloured by the association. These histories are often memorable for what may have been omitted than for what has been included, with the representation of archives and the production of critical writing being subject to the desire of the object of study to present itself and its history in a specific fashion. It is therefore obvious that in the course of such constructions, certain “alternative” histories or moments are often “forgotten” by those empowered to weave such dialogue, as they are either considered anathema to dominant discourses or not considered worthy of inclusion. What I will discuss throughout this research are important forgotten moments within Channel 4's history, in order to produce an alternative counter- history. This “forgotten history” will highlight Channel 4's long-standing,
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