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Last year, Channel 4 Education announced it was ditching much of its TV output and devoting its £6m budget to “high risk” cross-platform projects that could more effectively engage youngsters.

With more and more teenagers spurning traditional media, we asked the broadcaster’s commissioning editor Matt Locke about how it is planning to reach them through digital services.

He tells us if production houses are ready to fulfill its objectives and how Channel 4 is rethinking its focus towards metrics and measurement. Amen to that.

Late last year, Channel 4 Education announced a complete rethink of its TV-heavy commissioning strategy and said it was devoting its entire 2008 budget to cross-platform projects.

But it seems the broadcaster is not just keen to acquire new digital content – it also wants to invest in companies that support it.

According to commissioning editor Matt Locke, it is one of a number of firms that has just ploughed “a six figure sum” into School of Everything, a UK-based start-up that aims to encourage informal learning via the web.

BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are in talks about partnering to launch an on-demand broadband TV service, according to The Guardian.

A source told the paper that the new service would "do for broadband what Freeview did for digital television". It has been dubbed 'Project Kangaroo'.

Channel 4 has issued a warning that Google is set to overtake them in terms of advertising revenue this year.

The search engine is set to earn £900 million in advertising revenues for the UK market, which will top the predicted Channel 4 figure of around £800 million.