{"id":27544,"date":"2018-10-22T13:05:57","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T12:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/?p=27544"},"modified":"2018-10-22T17:27:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T16:27:47","slug":"channel-4-future-lies-in-young-and-culturally-diverse-second-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/22\/channel-4-future-lies-in-young-and-culturally-diverse-second-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Channel 4 future lies in young and culturally diverse second city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The broadcaster is deciding where to relocate to Birmingham, The UK\u2019s second city. Channel 4 will decide\u00a0where to move its head office, At the end of this month. In the world of media this is a moment of substantial importance. But the potential impact of the board\u2019s verdict is much greater.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The bidding process, overseen by Jonathan Allan, Channel 4\u2019s chief commercial officer, has yielded a shortlist of three: Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Each of the cities has a decent claim to the prize \u2013 but it should unquestionably go to\u00a0Birmingham, which has a hunger for the regeneration its presence would stimulate, and a civic trajectory that is perfect for Channel 4.<\/p>\n<p>With preparations for the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and the prospective arrival of the HS2 link have enlivened the UK\u2019s \u201csecond city\u201d, which was once known as the \u201cworkshop of the world\u201d. Today, unemployment is falling across the West Midlands but it is still too high: the jobs that a \u201chero brand\u201d such as\u00a0Channel 4\u00a0would generate are badly needed.<\/p>\n<p>But the city does not present itself as a hard-luck case. The municipal spirit that animated Joseph Chamberlain is surging once more. Birmingham\u2019s digital infrastructure,\u00a0early rollout of 5G mobile capacities, and the tech hub in nearby Leamington Spa are extremely impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Leeds claims to offer the diversity that Channel 4 is seeking in its new home. But it can scarcely compete with the incomparable diversity of Birmingham \u2013 whose population embraces more than 187 nationalities \u2013 or, importantly, the age demographic of the Midlands city.<\/p>\n<p>More than 40% of Birmingham\u2019s citizens are 25 and under. And this \u2013 above all else \u2013 is what makes the city the ideal new location for this, of all broadcasters. As it approaches its fifth decade Channel 4 \u2013 facing competition from Amazon Prime, Netflix and YouTube \u2013 badly needs access to the pulsing core of youth. Even in the world of virtual business, the geographical setting of the modern corporation\u2019s HQ still matters tremendously.<\/p>\n<p>Six metro mayors, most particularly\u00a0Andy Street\u00a0in Birmingham and Andy Burnham in Manchester, and the \u201cnorthern powerhouse\u201d established by George Osborne.<\/p>\n<p>If Channel 4 moves to Birmingham, it will be living amongst its target audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The broadcaster is deciding where to relocate to Birmingham, The UK\u2019s second city. Channel 4 will decide\u00a0where to move its head office, At the end of this month. In the world of media this is a moment of substantial importance. But the potential impact of the board\u2019s verdict is much greater. The bidding process, overseen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,37,3,112],"tags":[302,264,650,419,1625],"class_list":["post-27544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories","tag-andy-street","tag-birmingham","tag-channel-4","tag-commonwealth-games","tag-jonathan-allan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}