Station would have been a home to comedy

The company said a ‘drastic recent downturn’ meant it could, ‘reluctantly, no longer go ahead with its plans for a rival to Radio 4.

Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan said the decision to abandon two years of preparations had been made ‘very reluctantly’.

He admitted: ‘We can no longer afford the short-term investment necessary given that we are having to cut so deeply across all parts of the organisation.’

The closure is expected to save Channel 4 around £10million next year. It is currently facing a £100million-a-year funding gap.

Only last month, Channel 4 Radio announced that it had ordered three comedy programmes for the now-abandoned station: The Good Defenders, in which a team of B-list Superheroes protect planet Earth from rogue celebrities; Spooky Tales about a man who encounters particularly bad problems while attempting everyday things, such as preparing a barbecue; and Funpot a pilot featuring Stephen Yorke and Ben Harris. ‘trying to make each other laugh’.

Channel 4 was part of a consortium of media groups that last year won a licence to launch a raft of new radio stations, including speech station Channel 4 Radio, youth station E4 Radio, and music and culture station Pure4.

Published: 10 Oct 2008