More than 30 independent Scottish production companies have signed an open letter calling on Ofcom to reverse its recommendation that 91% of Channel 4's production budget should be allocated to England.
As part of the 10-year licence renewal process, aspects of the channel's production are being reviewed.
Currently 35% of its content must be produced outside of London, while 9% must be produced in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
However, a group of independent companies are pushing for that to be increased to 16%, in line with the BBC.
They said: “As a publicly owned public service broadcaster with a stated 'strong commitment to represent the whole of the UK' and 'to stand up for diversity across the UK', Channel 4 must fulfil its remit for the benefit of the UK as a whole and support the sustainable growth of the industry outside of London.
"As a group, we work internationally, as well as across the UK, producing content of scale for the BBC, ITV, C5, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Discovery, Disney+, Nat Geo, and Netflix among many others.
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"Our strong track record is clear evidence of the extensive skills and experience within the Scottish production and post-production sector.
“The BBC accepted production targets that mirror the UK’s population in 2009 and have worked with the indie community to significantly increase their supply base in Scotland, enabling us to create hundreds of high value jobs, as well as programmes that reflect Scotland, its people and their priorities.
"Focusing the large majority of Channel 4 programme spend on one small part of the UK’s thriving creative economy would be at the expense of the creative companies and freelancers in all four home nations, and would impact audiences who look to the PSBs for authentic portrayal of their lives, concerns, ambitions and cultures. We are concerned that Ofcom appears to have accepted C4’s arguments that favour a London-centric production sector.
“The UK based PSBs – specifically the BBC and Channel 4 - are the bedrock of our national creative economy and have long been valued partners in growth with indies in Scotland. Channel 4 has an obligation to support their continued growth. From a strategic point of view, if the channel is moving towards ‘fewer, bigger, better’, yet has a lack of faith in indies outside of the M25 being able to supply such content, they risk a return to the London-based commissioning of the past. In an already volatile and uncertain market, the future of the independent sector in Scotland would be significantly impacted with the loss of hundreds of freelance jobs.
“If they really are committed to a channel ‘4 all the UK’, we believe Channel 4 must invest in all of the UK. As such, we would strongly urge Ofcom to enshrine production that would reflect the nation’s share of the UK population as part of Channel 4’s 10-year licence; alongside a commitment to commissioning higher value Scripted and Factual programmes across genres from each UK nation.”
A Channel 4 spokesperson said: "Channel 4 is fully committed to driving growth and investment in the nations and regions and has made demonstrable progress over recent years.
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"Whilst we of course look to ensure that our commissioning spend benefits all three devolved nations, no commercial broadcaster, including Channel 4, has nominal or voluntary quota for the individual nations.
“We are fully committed to the nations and regions – our 4 All The UK strategy has introduced regional hubs, creating more than 500 roles out of London with a commitment to reach 600 by 2025; we have voluntarily increased our nations and regions commissioning quota from 35% to 50%; we have worked with screen agencies across the UK to introduce bespoke commissioning development initiatives; we have invested millions in the nations and regions through our 4Skills programme delivering 57,000 training, learning and development opportunities in 2023.
"These interventions have seen Channel 4’s out of London commissioning spend steadily increase over the licence period to a record £228m in 2022.”
The signatories of the letter were:
Wendy Rattray, Hello Halo Productions
Paul Sheehan, STV Productions
Mark Downie, IWC Media
Ross Wilson, RWP
Derek McLean, Bandicoot
Jane Rogerson, Red Sky
Ian Greenhill, Studio Something
Anne-Claire Christie, Specky Productions
Clare Kerr, Mead Kerr Ltd
Katie Lander, Finestripe Productions
Mark Hedgecoe, Rogan Scotland
Nicole Kleeman, Firecrest Productions
Michelle Friel, Friel Kean Films
Naysun Alae-Carew, Blazing Griffin
Mike Ellen, Freedom Scripted Entertainment
Seunn Rochester, Wild Child Animation
Amanda Murray, Fearless TV
Clair Mundell, Synchronicity Films
Harry Bell, Tern TV
Nigel Pope, Maramedia
Alan Clements, Two Rivers Media
Sarah Drummond, LS productions / LS Films
Alasdair MacCuish, Beezr Studios Ltd
Natalie Humphries, Storyboard Studios
Sarah Howitt, Indelible Telly
Jane Muirhead, Raise the Roof Productions
Rab Christie. The Comedy Unit
Elspeth O’Hare, F22 Films
John Archer, Hopscotch Films
Paul Murray, Boy313
Nikki Parrott, Tigerlily Two
Arabella Page, Croft Black Camel Productions
Sajid Quayum, Caledonia TV
Stewart Kyasimire, Create Anything
Rosie Crerar, Barry Crerar
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