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It's three years since Kevin Lygo returned to Channel Four after a brief sojourn at rival Five, and he certainly seems happy with the move.

The improved commute might have been a draw card - the director of programming lives a precise "nine and half minutes" walk from the Victoria office - but Lygo claims there was "no contest" when C4 came a- knocking.

"It's the best channel, really," he says. "Everything it stands for as a place to work - it's enormous fun."

There's little sense of nostalgia for his former employer. "There was hope for Five then," he says, recalling the call from Dawn Airey, then the channel's chief executive, that tempted him from C4 in 2001.

"No one can say Five is in any way successful now. It has lost more share than anybody this year - it's hard for an audience to know what it stands for."

Key to success

By contrast, Lygo argues C4's clearly defined brand is the key to the broadcaster's success as the only terrestrial to have grown its share this year.

"You wouldn't struggle to define C4," he says confidently. "Shameless, for example, is a quintessentially C4 drama - no one else would have done it. We're still making the sort of programmes other people copy later."

There are those, of course, who disagree. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one such critic is Paul Jackson, director of entertainment and comedy at rival ITV. Speaking at an agency presentation last week to kick off the trading season, he responded to rumours about Lygo being poached by ITV by saying: "Kevin's the hot guy at the moment because he runs a channel that runs on two shows (Deal or No Deal and Big Brother). What shows has he brought in that we all say we wish we had?"

But Lygo is dismissive of his critics, insisting the broadcaster is still at the vanguard of producing programmes that create the sort of "water cooler" chat every channel dreams of.

The new winter schedule, unveiled last Thursday, is perfect proof, he believes. It includes old favourites such as Shameless, Desperate Housewives and yes, more Jamie Oliver, as well as the sort of programmes - both commissioned and imported - he claims will achieve his aim to "constantly surprise and delight people".

Among the new stuff - including one-off dramas, political satire and a documentary set on a farm full of glow-in-the-dark-pigs and a "Schwarzenegger cow" - is a new US comedy that has Lygo excited.

Indeed, the slightly glum, bored expression he seems to cultivate disappears as he waxes lyrical about Ugly Betty, a sort of small-screen Devil Wears Prada that he hopes will revive Friday nights.

"We want to get Friday back to its best. In its heyday, with Friends and Sex and the City, it was appointment to view, and you could put your own stuff around it. We have really felt the lack of a first-rate US comedy, but we have got one now," he says.

It's not just Stateside comedy that gets viewers watching, of course, and much has been made of the loss to Sky of Lost, which proved such a big hit for the broadcaster.

But Lygo is typically sanguine. "Lost was losing viewers at a rather alarming rate," he shrugs. "I would have liked to keep it, but the price was mad, so we chose to let it go."

Financing content

When it comes to the coffers, there's more to worry about than just the latest US must-have. With so many new ways of watching TV content, how are broadcasters going to be able to finance their content?

Lygo admits it puts pressure on him to be creative, but insists C4 is up for the challenge.

"Commercial models need to be thought through and the truth is everyone's learning the best way to do it. We should start using our skills of commissioning material and thinking 'let's commission stuff only for C4.com' or if we do a deal with a telephone company 'what will be the best way of doing it?', because at the moment no one's taken the lead; there hasn't been anything commissioned yet for the web or mobile and it would be fantastic to be the first to do that.

"We can be creative about what we offer. Wife Swap, for example - instead of downloading an episode, for a mobile - for a laugh - let's just have one minute of the biggest rows."

His focus though, is still on the main channels - C4, E4, More 4 and Film 4. And though he admits it's a tough job, he believes they can still deliver the kind of audiences advertisers want. Deal or No Deal, the surprise teatime hit, certainly seems to be ticking the right boxes at the moment, so sales boss Andy Barnes must be happy?

"Are the sales boys ever happy?" he sighs. "They say they need bulk in the daytime, so we give them Deal or No Deal - they say the profile's a bit flat; we give them The OC and they say 'we could do with more bulk'. I've given up trying to satisfy them, but they'd rather be selling C4 than any other channel."

CV

2003: Director of television Channel 4

2001: Director of programmes Five

2001: Controller, E4 launch Channel 4

1997: Head of entertainment and music, Channel 4

1993: Head of independent commissioning for entertainment BBC.