Channel 4’s great clean-up – except at the top

A fresh start for the broadcaster under Priya Dogra is nowhere in sight, says STEPHEN ARNELL

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IN JUNE 2025, I wrote a piece for this paper on the state of public service broadcaster Channel 4, condemning the greed, complacency and creative bankruptcy of the organisation, while fervently hoping for change under new leadership, should it be installed.

In December 2025, it was announced Priya Dogra — previously Sky’s chief advertising, group data and new revenue officer — had been appointed as the new chief executive officer of Channel 4, taking over the role in March 2026.

In April this year, the news broke that controversial chief content officer Ian Katz was leaving in October 2026.

A clean sweep of the Augean stables then, and a welcome fresh start for Channel 4, which has seen its credibility and public service remit adherence markedly diminish over the past decade.

Former Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon has seen her stock seriously decline since she left the broadcaster last year to coin it in at KRR (Israeli underground data centre investor/advertiser for real estate on illegally occupied West Bank land)-owned festival promotion mammoth Superstruct, and co-write “bonkbuster” novel The Rich Bitch Club, which she proceeded to swiftly hawk around to publishers and rival TV executives.

Seen once as a prospective BBC director-general, Mahon is now widely regarded as a busted flush, whose obvious love of the finer things in life wouldn’t sit well with the now supposedly frugal national broadcaster.

In a recent Deadline Hollywood article, it was said: “Channel 4 became ‘bloated’ and inefficient under Mahon’s regime,” and “Mahon pocketed total pay of £8.46 million ($11.3m) during her tenure, which was up 33 per cent on her predecessor, David Abraham.”

“Channel 4 posted record sales of £1.16 billion on Mahon’s watch in 2021, but the 33 per cent increase in her pay outpaced the company’s revenue growth of 5.6 per cent during her time in charge.”

In terms of Mahon’s management skills, the piece also stated: “If you want to judge the mess, look at the clean-up.”

A former employee lamented: “They’ve known for ages that having about 50 commissioners was wrong but weren’t brave enough.”

Mahon’s steamy “sex ’n’ shopping” novel The Rich Bitch Club was set to be completed in January 2026; no sign of a publication date yet. No great loss, some might say.

Ian Katz, who is still in post until next month, has, according to industry periodical of record, Broadcast, become a valued consigliere to Dogra, which to some beggars belief.

Why? Aside from the multitude of tacky, exploitative shows the executive green-lit, back in 2022 Katz contemplated commissioning The Cancellation of Noel Clarke, where the actor and director accused by over 20 women of sexual abuses could “have his say” — and possibly have a financial stake in the production.

Katz obviously didn’t learn his lesson from the Clark debacle, as this May, the broadcaster was said to be exploring a film about disgraced BBC newsreader Huw Edwards’s mental health issues, with the presenter’s active participation in order to “state his case.”

Some adviser, eh? Incidentally, Katz earned £4.2m in his first six years as chief content officer, a 34 per cent increase on what Jay Hunt was paid during an equivalent period.

So, a blot on the new regime at Channel 4, with Katz still stinking up the broadcaster’s reputation with his seedy headline-grabbing ideas — but has Dogra taken any positive steps? You may not be surprised to find the answer is, thus far, a resounding No.

Dogra has taken action which will result in 340 layoffs at Channel 4 before the end of 2026, around 28 per cent of the workforce. Fair enough, some might say, if the broadcaster was really that bloated under Mahon. With the swingeing job losses, one would also surely expect some belt-tightening in terms of the remaining senior executive pay levels, non?

Deadline Hollywood further reported: “Channel 4 has no plans to review record levels of executive pay in recent years despite the UK network’s ambition to radically reduce its cost base. Deadline understands that Channel 4’s board is not giving active consideration to reducing the pay packets of top” executives.

“Well, there it is,” as the Emperor Joseph II often states in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus.

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