Allen attacks "banal" Channel 4

Outgoing ITV chief executive Charles Allen has accused Channel 4 of lacking a public service remit, suggesting that the broadcaster undergo a "fundamental remodelling".

Delivering the keynote MacTaggart lecture at this year's Edinburgh festival, Allen said that Channel 4 had "operated on a free rein" and that its PSB remit was "high on warm words, low on specifics".

"In key areas, Channel 4 is delivering less than its commercial competitors - less original production, less production outside London and less news in and around peak. And no children's programmes to speak of. True, in some areas it delivers more - more repeats, more acquired programmes and more US imports.

"And let's not forget Channel 4 does spend £90 million on education. Mind you that includes such instructive fare as Scrapheap Challenge and Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice. I am just waiting for the justification of Wank Week as educational programming."

Referring to C4's request for a £100 million annual subsidy, Allen likened the broadcaster to a "25-year-old still living at home, dipping into mum's purse even when it's got a fat pay check in its back pocket".

He added: "Let's not mince words: if we need to pay for its PSB content out of public money, the current Channel 4 model is dead."

A C4 spokesman stressed that the contents of its public service remit was "irrelevant" and that "delivery against those remits" was important. "Any objective assessment of the relative creative performance of Channel 4 and ITV currently would suggest Channel 4 is delivering far more effectively against its remit than ITV."

He added: "In the week when one of ITV's own senior executives called its flagship channel 'unwatchable', it would have been better for Charles to use his last major industry platform to set out a vision for ITV's own commercial and creative reinvention."