More bad jobs news. Channel 4 have announed that the 4Talent Networks teams, including those at the Birmingham hub, ‘won’t be around‘ in 2009.
We’re told that:
under new management channel4.com/4talent will at least continue
but whether they can maintain the impeccable standards set by Nick Carson, Helen Byrne and Catherine Bray is another matter.
I am blooming gutted. As if C4 haven’t saved dosh by cancelling the radio projects (and taking away jobs pledged to 4talent award winners andy ward and veena v) they now go and do this.
So once again, its all about Londoners and established companies C4 can choose to commission.
4Talent’s presence in Birmingham has been really important to me, and Cat Bray has been particularly fantastic in helping me add experience to my CV.
I guess that means rather than 11 chances to win a 4talent award, I have none. But never mind!
I feel that C4 feel that they have ‘talent schemes’ wrapped up by using Skins as a platform to find people but Skins is not the finest of programming, no matter what its audience figures might suggest. It has a niche market that will not get all areas of talent noticed.
Luckily Nick, Helen and Cat are clearly talented, bright and have great futures and I wish them all the luck in the world and a big thanks too.
[copied over from the 4Talent blog]
Thanks for the good wishes Frankie!
I’m off to London in January for a brand new job with a different broadcaster – I’ll be blogging all about it shortly, but in the meantime, stay in touch. My gmail email will stay the same and you can find me as ever over on http://catherinebray.wordpress.com/
It’s been fantastic working on 4Talent, and I’m confident that the efforts of Nick and others to keep the best bits of the networks going in new forms will pay off. You ain’t heard the last of these people…
Nick mentioned it on the 4Talent magazine site, but it’s worth stressing again that he and I, along with Channel 4 and many others, are doing everything we possibly can to find a way of keeping 4Talent going or relaunching it in some form or another. We have both worked on the 4Talent website, magazine, awards and other events for the past 5 years and hold them all very close to our hearts. In the meantime, keep an eye on http://www.4talentmagazine.com for updates, and a huge thanks to everyone for their support over the years
Dan
(Editor-in-Chief, 4Talent magazine)
The madness. For why?
Really sorry to hear that – 4Talent has done a great job in unearthing and giving due recognition to this region’s creative talent – and I know a lot of people who have been helped, encouraged and generally boosted along their professional way by these guys. Me included.
Boo to C4 – what’s going on there?