The Tory party has plans to privatize channel four. Its been widely reported that the broadcaster has supported more local innovative and independent productions and that the is Tory revenge for their perceived anti-Tory reporting. CH 4 is a highly successful broadcaster.
Nadine Dorries is a lightweight embarrassment as the tory culture minster and in interviews was not aware that while ch4 is publicly owned, it pays for itself with advertising – a unique model.
The loss of legend broadcaster Jon snow last December was felt keenly. – after his 32 years with the broadcaster ,he said “its been the greatest privilege of my life to bring you the news.”
According to reports a privatized CH4 would face possible 50% cuts to its £660m program budgets - – spent on content such as news and current affairs, Gogglebox and It’s a Sin – to force its model into that of a commercially-focused broadcaster. This is likely to mean cuts to content that does not bring in much income from advertising, which Channel 4 relies on for more than 90% of its £1bn annual revenues, such as news.
CH4 has set up offices in Leeds and Glasgow which would probably have to close.
Who owns Channel 4?
Channel 4 was established by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1982 to provide a culturally challenging alternative to BBC One, BBC Two and ITV. It is publicly owned but commercially funded. Unlike the BBC, which is funded through the £159-a-year license fee its viewers must pay, Channel 4 has no financial support from the taxpayer.
In 2017, the culture secretary Karen Bradley formally ruled privatization out, saying Channel 4 was a “precious public asset” that would “continue to be owned by the country”. Instead, the government pushed for Channel 4 to relocate significant parts of its operations and staff out of London. About 300 of its 800 staff have now moved to new “national” headquarters in Leeds, as well as “creative hubs” in Bristol and Glasgow.
Ultimately, it was decided that the benefits of a cash windfall to the government were outweighed by the scale of the detrimental impact on the independent TV sector.
"Jon Snow will have 'honorary citizenship in independent Scotland', says FM Nicola Sturgeon
