Channel 4’s move out of London will cost at least £50m, with the number of staff seeking redundancy payments in preference to leaving the capital running at more than 80% in some departments.
Channel 4 is understood to be planning for a bill of more than £50m over the next three years as it seeks to rebalance its operation across the UK, including moving 300 of its 800 staff out of its London headquarters.
The broadcaster is in consultation with staff over relocating to its new national HQ planned for Leeds, and two “creative hubs” in Bristol and Glasgow, with the first departments expected to move over the summer. It is understood that some have indicated that as many as 90% of staff would take redundancy rather than move.
Channel 4 has agreed generous terms for leavers, especially those with long service, including one month’s salary for each year of service with no upper limit.
When Channel 4 finishes its redistribution of staff, only a relatively small number of the 300 are expected to move from its London HQ in Horseferry Road, Victoria. It is understood that about 40% of the 300 who will take up posts in the regions will be workers who were previously working for outsourced units, including technical and IT operations.
If the proportion of London-based staff seeking redundancy remains at the expected 80% to 90% level overall, then only between 20 and 40 staff will end up moving out of the capital.
Channel 4 is pursuing its “4 All the UK” strategy following the BBC’s experience of moving staff to MediaCity in Salford, Manchester and Birmingham. The BBC found that nearly 60% of managers, and a much higher level among rank and file employees, refused to move from London to MediaCity, while just 31 of 144 agreed to relocate to operations in Birmingham.
Channel 4’s former chief executive, David Abraham, had previously warned that up to 80% of its workforce would quit if they were forced to move out of the capital.
The broadcaster’s latest annual report shows that it has a cash pot of £190m and total assets valued at £446m, which includes its HQ building in London, estimated to be worth about £100m.
“The 4 All the UK strategy is a transformational long-term investment in the future of Channel 4,” a spokesman said. “It will enable Channel 4 to reach new stories, ideas and talent from across the UK that others are not able to, deliver new creative and commercial benefits for the organisation, and generate jobs and growth in the creative economy outside of London.”
Channel 4’s new national HQ in Leeds, which won out over more fancied bidders including Birmingham and Manchester, is expected to be home to more than 200 staff. The company’s new office in the Majestic building, which once housed a nightclub that inspired the Kaiser Chiefs song I Predict a Riot, will not be completed until late next year.
In the interim, staff will be based in a temporary office opposite Leeds railway station which officially opens in the autumn. Leeds is proving popular as a northern base, with corporations including Sky and sports streaming service DAZN already having a large presence in the city.
The creative hubs being opened by Channel 4 in Bristol and Glasgow will be home to up to 20 staff each.
The commitment to reducing Channel 4’s focus on the capital includes spending half of its £700m annual programme budget on shows made by TV production companies based outside London by 2023. It currently spends about £170m annually. The boost in spend outside the capital is expected to support the creation of as many as 3,000 new jobs.
Channel 4’s announcements of the relocation of the national HQ and creative hubs has sparked a number of businesses in the creative industry to follow suit. Endemol Shine, the maker of shows from Big Brother to Humans, production company trade body Pact, the BFI and pay-TV group UKTV have all announced offices or initiatives in Leeds.
The relocation represents the biggest change of structure in Channel 4’s 36-year history. The state-owned, not-for-profit broadcaster, which will reveal its performance for 2018 in its annual report on 11 June, reported a “planned deficit” of £17m in 2017.