Andy Duncan, the Channel 4 chief executive, has warned that the broadcaster faced the worst economic conditions in its history as he unveiled an extra 10 per cent cut in editorial budgets. Duncan said advertising revenue will be down 18 per cent year on year in the first half of 2009.

Channel 4 cut 200 jobs towards the end of last year and was already expected to cut £25 million (E28m) from its 2008 annual content budget of around £600 million this year. However, this content budget cut was based on a forecast made at the end of 2008 that Channel 4’s ad revenue would fall between 5 per cent and 10 per cent in 2009.

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