The broadcaster is dropping Big Brother after next year's celebrity and 11th series, leaving about 200 hours of peak air time to be filled across Channel 4 and E4.
It called the decision its 'most significant creative transformation in its history'. Director of television and content, Kevin Lygo, said the channel would take the opportunity to review its commissioning strategies in all genres.
He said the decision was creative rather than commercial and cited Channel 4's public remit as a reason to champion new forms of creativity. The current series of the show is attracting the lowest ratings in its history.
Lygo said: ‘Cancelling Big Brother does not solve Channel 4's funding issues; this year we've nearly £125m less to spend on programmes than we did a couple of years ago and budgets for next year may have to be reduced further.
‘However, assuming advertising revenues stop deteriorating at some point, we should have greater flexibility in how we spend our commissioning budget; the significant sums that have been committed to Big Brother in the past should now be available to boost budgets in genres, such as drama, that have had to be cut back sharply during the downturn,' he added.
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