BBC Content Boss Charlotte Moore Takes On Channel 4’s Ian Katz Over Reboots: “Well Channel 4 Bought ‘Bake Off’ Back” – Edinburgh TV Festival

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BBC Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore has hit back at Channel 4’s Ian Katz’s view on TV reboots by stating “well Channel 4 bought The Great British Bake Off back.”Katz used his Edinburgh TV Festival session this morning to describe the current penchant for reboots as “depressing” but Moore said reboots take “creativity and are challenging.”Questioned on Katz’s comments, she reminded the Edinburgh audience that Channel 4 had commissioned Great British Bake Off, it’s top-rated show, soon after the show stopped airing on the BBC last decade.The issue has become a key talking point at Edinburgh and reboots were also criticized by former Channel 4 CEO David Abraham a day before Katz.“I don’t think it’s easy to bring titles back and make them successful,” said Moore. “It would be  a problem if it was all we were doing but if you’re going to have impact with young viewers and get people to come to shows, there’s no doubt [reboots] create impact.”Moore stressed there are “plenty of new shows coming through” at the BBC.She said “difficult choices” are to come as the BBC faces up to a two-year-long licence fee freeze that will hit program budgets and see 200 hours trimmed from the schedules.“I won’t pretend it will be easy but fortunately we have investment [from third parties] and fantastic co-pro deals in place,” she added. “The freeze presents a tighter focus on value to all our audiences.

We’re already evolving, looking at how we deliver high-impact content. This has meant we’ve stopped so many hours on BBC Two and BBC Four, for example.”Moore stressed several times her network’s focus on BBC iPlayer over linear channels, one of the key priorities for Director General Tim Davie.She rejected the notion that the recent BBC