Latest in Ian Katz

Channel 4 News has unveiled BBC Newsnight Editor Esme Wren as its next Editor, replacing Ben de Pear. Wren will start in the new year, overseeing the UK network’s flagship news show, which is produced by ITN. She has led Newsnight for the past three years and has produced a raft of major exclusives and investigations…

Key figures from major broadcasters, streaming services and unions in the British TV industry have joined forces to pledge to improve working practices for freelancers in across the sector in the UK. Dubbed The Freelance Charter, the historic document has been signed by the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5/ViacomCBS, Sky…

This time last year, Ben Frow didn’t know how to use a laptop, had never worked from home for a single day of his career, and was terrified that his local supermarket was going to run out of food. “I was more worried about the shelves being empty than the Channel 5 shelf being empty,” says the mischievous and…

Channel 4 has promoted its programming boss Ian Katz to chief content officer in a sweeping reorganization aimed at helping the UK broadcaster secure 40% of its £985 million ($1.3 billion) revenue from sources other than traditional TV advertising by 2025. Katz will have total authority over editorial decision making…

Britain’s top television executives will be questioned on the coronavirus crisis during a series of live Zoom interviews that form part of the reimagined online Edinburgh TV Festival. Starting from April 27, the festival’s creative director Stewart Clarke will sit down with BBC director of content Charlotte Moore, ITV…

Channel 4’s top executives, including CEO Alex Mahon, are set to join other entertainment industry chiefs in taking a coronavirus pay cut as the advertising downturn begins to bite. The Gogglebox and Great British Bake Off broadcaster, which is almost entirely funded by the ad market, is preparing to announce a range…

British broadcaster Channel 4 is moving into natural history programming with an eight-part series on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya as part of a slate of new shows for 2020. Living Wild (working title), produced by Sky-owned Blast! Films, promises to take viewers on an intimate journey into the lives of a cast of…

EXCLUSIVE: If Charlie Covell decides to return to her cult drama The End Of The F***ing World, she will be pushing on an open door at Channel 4, which originally commissioned the show and co-produced it with Netflix. That’s according to Channel 4 director of programs Ian Katz, who told Deadline that Covell “can keep…

EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4’s director of programs Ian Katz has said he would consider bringing back Big Brother, and revealed that youth channel E4 is conducting a major hunt for a new reality show. In an exclusive interview with Deadline, Katz said he would not dismiss out of hand an approach from Endemol Shine Group…

At the BBC’s Christmas drinks earlier this month, I gatecrashed an animated conversation between two senior figures from the UK production sector. After a sheepish glance at each other, they revealed that the subject of their discussion was a certain Ian Katz, the director of programs at Channel 4. They are far from…

Channel 4 Director of Programmes Ian Katz kicked off his first week at the British public broadcaster with mischief in his eye and an inbox of A-list invites as independent producers try to curry favor with the former BBC executive and land one of his first multi-million pound commissions. He has told staff that he…

UK broadcaster Channel 4 has appointed BBC executive Ian Katz as its programming boss following the departure of Jay Hunt to Apple last week. Katz, currently editor of BBC2 late-night political program Newsnight, has been named director of programmes at the Humans and Electric Dreams broadcaster. One Channel 4 insider…