Liverpool has launched a “compelling bid” to be the new home of Channel 4.
Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson and Liverpool City Region metro mayor Steve Rotheram are leading the bid and say “Channel 4 could find a soul mate in Liverpool”.
They believe Liverpool city council’s aspirations to create one of the largest film studios in the UK at the former Littlewoods Building on Edge Lane, combined with the Ten Streets creative quarter project, could give the city a unique bid.
Under the new plans, 300 of Channel 4’s 800 staff would move out of the capital. Currently only 30 of its staff are based outside London – with 25 sales people in Manchester and five employees in Glasgow.
The broadcaster announced last week that the search for a location, called “4 All in the UK”, will be the biggest structural change in its 35-year history, including three new “creative hubs”. Channel 4 News, fronted by University of Liverpool alumni Jon Snow, will open three new news bureaux and will see their staff grow by a factor of three by 2020.
“Channel 4 was created as a market intervention to make TV broadcasting more diverse and Liverpool is the obvious partner for the broadcaster,” said Professor Nigel Weatherill, vice-chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.
“The relocation to Liverpool would be a great opportunity for Channel 4 to return to a city that has been the incubator for some of their most loved programmes and we now have a thriving creative sector with a talent pipeline through the universities.”
