Channel 4's director of television has said he has "no regrets" at passing on the rights for Friends spinoff Joey.

The broadcaster decided to pull out of the bidding for the sitcom as its price tag rose. Eventually it went to Five in a deal worth £5.5 million.

Ratings were initially good with 4 million viewers, but in the last fortnight figures have dropped off to just 2 million.

"We haven't seen anything we wanted in the traditional half-hour comedy sense for Friday night for a couple of years really now," admitted Kevin Lygo at C4's Spring launch on Wednesday. "Will & Grace was probably the last comedy that we bought. There was the furore about Joey and there are some who would carp that it's lost 1m viewers a week, but not me. We didn't miss Joey as it happens."

He went on to defend the station's new homegrown Friday night lineup, despite its poor ratings and critical slamming.

"We're trying lots of new programmes on Friday - Nathan Barley and The Friday Night Project. We'd do them again. Friday Night Project is interesting - it's bringing new people to the channel. It's an antidote to Jonathan Ross. You talk to teenagers and people in their early twenties and he's a bit like the Jimmy Tarbuck of his generation."

More comedies are planned for the coming months, including new vehicles for Johnny Vegas and Jimmy Carr.