Channel 4 this morning announced plans to cut 15 per cent of its workforce and slash £100 million from its costs in an attempt to stave off unsustainable losses at the Big Brother broadcaster.

The decision means that Channel 4 will broadcast more repeats for the remainder of this year, and increase their quantity in 2009. Fewer current affairs serious factual programmes and dramas are likely to be commissioned next year.

That means a show such as Kevin McCloud's Big Town Plan, a four-part series about the regeneration of Castleford, a run-down former mining town in Yorkshire, are unlikely to be commissioned again. It took seven years to complete but generated only a viewing share of 4 per cent, below half Channel 4's normal average.

Meanwhile, Channel 4's most popular shows - Big Brother, Hollyoaks and Deal or No Deal - will not be affected as they generate a disproportionate amount of profit.

The cost-cutting plan means that Channel 4 will cut its programme budget from a planned £600 million to £575 million this year, and down to £550 million in 2009. A further £25 million is coming from the loss of 150 jobs, and the remaining £25 million from a mixture of cutting marketing spending and other short-term savings.

Channel 4 estimates that collapsing advertising revenues - a victim of the credit crunch - mean that television advertising will fall by 5 per cent this year. It had planned to break even, and believes it will broadly do so after the cutbacks.

But it will also call for financial help from politicians and Ofcom, the regulator. State-owned Channel 4 wants ministers to provide up to £150 million a year in support to help safeguard its future - and there are growing signs that it will receive at least some of what it wants.

Last week, Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom, said that Channel 4's problems were "a pressing priority". On Thursday, he will announce that Channel 4 needs financial help and will suggest where that money could come from, including top slicing part of the £3.4 billion BBC licence fee.

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