Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham will talk about the increase in a speech delivered later today at the Oxford Media Convention.

The £450m budget represents an increase of just over £80m from Channel 4’s last audited figures in 2010 when spend on original UK commissions was £362m.

The audited accounts for 2011 will be published in May, but it is believed that there was a roughly 10 per cent increase in the budget for original commissions from 2010 to 2011.

In his speech to delegates at the Oxford Media Convention this afternoon Abraham will say: “[Since] I joined Channel 4  [in 2010], we will have increased the level of annual investment in the British creative economy by over £80m across a wide spread of companies, especially the critical SMEs.”