Ian Katz to leave role as Channel 4 content chief in the autumn

Channel 4’s content chief, Ian Katz, who holds responsibility for the broadcaster’s £650m annual programming budget and output, is to leave after almost nine years in the post.

Katz, a former senior executive at the Guardian, became the channel’s director of programmes in January 2018, having moved from being the editor of BBC’s Newsnight.

He was made chief content officer in 2020 and will depart the post in October, making him Channel 4’s longest-serving head of programmes.

Katz is the latest high-profile executive to depart Channel 4 after the appointment of the new chief executive, Priya Dogra, from Sky.

In February, Jonathan Allan, who held the role of interim chief executive after the departure of Alex Mahon, announced his resignation after 15 years at Channel 4.

Katz – who was paid £720,000, including a £238,000 bonus, according to Channel 4’s latest accounts for 2024 – took up the post after his predecessor Jay Hunt moved to Apple.

“It’s been a privilege beyond words to lead Channel 4’s talented and passionate commissioning team through such a transformative period,” he said.

“I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved, from pioneering the evolution of a commercial public service broadcaster into a digital streaming business, to backing groundbreaking programmes and talent that have brought a bit of joy to audience’s lives.”

The departure of Katz leaves something of a management vacuum at the top of Channel 4, with two of the three most senior exectuive positions now effectively vacant, but opens up an opportunity for one of the most influential positions in British broadcasting.

“Ian has been an outstanding creative leader for Channel 4 over nearly nine years – the channel’s longest-serving head of programming,” Dogra said. “He has overseen an era of creative renewal, delivering bold and distinctive public service programming with intellectual rigour, good humour and an unmistakably Channel 4 glint in the eye.”

Katz, a former deputy editor of the Guardian, joined Newsnight in 2013 with the programme in crisis after it scrapped an investigation into Jimmy Savile’s sex crimes and then ran a separate piece that led to Lord McAlpine wrongly being accused of child abuse.