Film On Four

Good Films – Poor Profits

In 1987 Isaacs pointed out that ‘we’ve made over 100 films now, and only around half a dozen have so far returned money to Channel Four’. While scoring international critical successes with films such as Howard’s End, The Crying Game and Damage the profits were going mainly to the distributors.

But even if the films were not making much money for the channel they served to raise the profile of Channel Four on the international market. Isaacs confessed that ‘the highly expensive strand [Film on Four] was something of a luxury’ and in 1992 cut £4million from its budget. In 1992 Channel Fours average contribution to a Film on Four was 40% which was a drop from approximately 75% in its first year. The enthusiasm for British product from US investors had also begun to wane. But how could Channel Four have afforded to be such a generous benefactor to British film for so long? To quote Sight and Sound, ‘Film on Four provided vital support for the infrastructure and culture of British fiction making during the 80’s, with money that was, in some measure, enlightened state funding by the back door’. Channel Four, for its first ten years, had by government ruling been freed from a reliance on advertising revenue, part of its funding coming from subsidies by the other ITV companies. Therefore it had been partly ITV money that had been subsidising the British film industry which, because the ITV companies could write off subscription to Channel Four against the Exchequer levy, had come indirectly from government funds.