Alex Mahon says former staff member made ‘serious’ allegation in 2009 that was not ‘investigated as it should have been’

The head of Channel 4 has apologised to a former staff member for not properly investigating a “serious” allegation made against Russell Brand in 2009.

However, the broadcaster found “no evidence” that staff at Channel 4 knew about the accusations made by four women in a Dispatches documentary before it was aired in September.

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Head of drama’s exit will leave broadcaster with no senior decision makers living in city of ‘national HQ’

The most senior commissioner in Channel 4’s Leeds office is to lose her job, the Guardian can reveal, leaving the broadcaster with no top decision makers living in the city of its “national headquarters”.

Caroline Hollick’s role as head of drama will be made redundant and brought under the remit of Ollie Madden, the director of Film4, as part of cost-cutting measures and will be run from Channel 4’s London office.

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Jungle-based competition in which celebrities try to evade Bear Grylls part of a wide-ranging new Netflix slate

Holly Willoughby has made her first major move since leaving This Morning, signing up to host a new Netflix show, Bear Hunt with Bear Grylls.

In October she announced she was quitting the ITV show after 14 years “for me and my family” after it emerged she was the target of an alleged kidnap and murder plot.

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The law hasn’t changed. Yet the regulator is allowing these channels to transmit partisan political content

• Stewart Purvis is a former Ofcom content partner and Chris Banatvala was Ofcom’s founding director of standards

Ofcom has signalled the start of the 2024 election season by issuing its advice to broadcasters on coverage of the local elections in May. It does this before every election to help its licensees maintain their legal obligation of impartiality. But in our editorial and regulatory experience, stretching back 40 years, there has never been so much cause for confusion and concern about what lies ahead in broadcast coverage of both local and general election campaigns.

Is Ofcom going to allow senior party officials to present election programmes as long as they are not actual candidates? Could a channel host party loyalists from only one side, delivering nightly unchallenged polemics on each day’s campaign news? Will channels with poor compliance records and fewer viewers than the public service broadcasters be given greater flexibility in achieving “due impartiality” on the basis of what Ofcom calls “ audience expectations ”?

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Commercial broadcaster’s sell-off will help fund share buyback and expansion of ITVX

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ITV has sold its 50% stake in BritBox International, the streaming service that offers programmes such as Line of Duty outside the UK, to BBC Studios for £255m in cash.

The UK broadcaster said the sale to its joint-venture partner would underpin its strategy of expanding its ITVX advertiser-funded streaming service and its global studios division.

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A new series about the former talkshow host is less of a journalistic exposé and more of a voyeuristic mess

The new Lifetime series Where Is Wendy Williams ? was billed as “an unfiltered look at Wendy’s life following the end of her iconic talkshow”. Instead, the series ghoulishly lays bare Williams’s ongoing experiences with a host of legal and health issues, including early onset-dementia.

In the four-part documentary, we watch her stumble around sick, confused, incoherent and unable to recognize immediate family members or properly answer questions. Even the signature blond wigs she always had perfectly coiffed while taping the Wendy Williams Show, her polarizing and long-running series, are a straggly mess, her appearance bluntly telegraphing her layered, years-long struggles.

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The Bafta and Oscar-nominated actor says he would like to reprise his role as the Birmingham gangster Thomas Shelby

The Oscar and Bafta-nominated Cillian Murphy, a hot contender to win best actor awards for his portrayal of Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan ’s film about the creator of the atom bomb, has revealed he would still happily return to the role of Peaky Blinders’ s Thomas Shelby, on the small or the big screen, if the chance came his way.

“If there is more story to tell, and if Stephen Knight delivers a script like I know he can, then I will be there,” Murphy said. “I mean, if we want to watch 50-year-old Tommy Shelby, I will be there. Let’s do it.”

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The network boss believes production companies that underpin Britain’s global reputation face being forced out of business

Alex Mahon’s assessment of the crisis facing the television market is frank: the Channel 4 boss believes many of the production companies that underpin Britain’s global reputation for making hit shows face being forced out of business.

Amid the worst ad slump in more than 15 years, which the chief executive has described as “market shock” territory , her comments are unlikely to warm the already strained relations between the broadcaster and the 300 independent TV producers that depend on it.

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Tycoon’s eldest son promises ‘no change’ in Fox News strategy but suite of legal claims threaten to derail family empire

Lachlan Murdoch has been chairman of News Corporation and Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, for more than a week now after his father Rupert finally officially handed the reins to him.

Beyond the titular changes, how much of a transition is in fact being made is open to question. “I hope to continue an active role in the company,” the elder Murdoch, 92, remarked during the company’s most recent annual shareholders meeting.

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