When the federal government determined to desert its most up-to-date try and privatise Channel 4 the rationale given was that the broadcaster was a “treasured public asset”, a view backed up with the promise that it could “proceed to be owned by the nation”.
4 years on and the federal government’s new session on the way forward for Channel 4 positions a sale of the broadcaster virtually as a necessity, it needing a significant money injection and adjustments to its non-profit remit to compete towards the deep-pocketed international streaming behemoths similar to Netflix.
The federal government argument is that Channel 4, a industrial channel owned by the federal government, is overly depending on promoting – which accounted for 91% of the broadcaster’s £934m revenues final yr – and much too susceptible with conventional audiences more and more shifting to digital providers.
New capital, and a change in remit to permit Channel 4 to personal the precious rights to programmes it commissions, similar to Come Dine With Me and Undercover Boss, may make the relative minnow formidable on the worldwide stage.
However Channel 4 says that its distinctive mannequin, which has allowed UK impartial TV producers to flourish by exploiting rights to their exhibits internationally, isn’t damaged. Viewers of the broadcaster’s conventional tv channels and its catch-up service, All 4, grew by 2% and 26% respectively final yr, and by 4% and 40% within the first half of this yr. The broadcaster is on monitor to interrupt £1bn in revenues for the primary time this yr.
“What’s the evaluation to point out [that privatisation] makes us stronger?” Alex Mahon, the chief govt of Channel 4, requested as she gave proof to the Commons tradition committee on Tuesday. “We’ve obtained to watch out of doing something that may be irreversible.”
The privatisation knives have been sharpened for Channel 4 about half a dozen occasions since its creation underneath Margaret Thatcher’s authorities in 1982. The tradition minister, John Whittingdale, who’s spearheading the newest evaluation, simply as he did the final one in 2016, first agitated for privatisation within the Nineteen Nineties.
The transfer on Channel 4 comes couched as a part of a wider evaluation into public service broadcasting that features proposals to make streaming broadcasters topic to the identical rules as conventional UK broadcasters.
The difficulty was thrust into the highlight final yr when viewers, outraged at perceived inaccuracies in Netflix’s drama The Crown, discovered that Ofcom, the UK regulator that enforces the broadcasting code, was powerless to analyze.
The “gentle contact” regime that governs streaming providers, the Audio Visible Media Companies rules (AVMS), doesn’t search to handle dangerous and offensive materials, accuracy and impartiality in the best way Ofcom’s broadcasting code does for UK linear channels. And, in any case, the AVMS guidelines don’t apply to operators with headquarters exterior the UK, such Netflix, which has its European base within the Netherlands.
The federal government’s proposals goal to “degree the enjoying subject” by making all streaming providers topic to the broadcasting code. That might give the regulator a say on exhibits similar to Netflix’s controversial however widespread Seaspiracy, which was accused of misrepresentation by its contributors.
One other focus is extending the important “due prominence” laws that rewards the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 with the highest slots on TV programme guides in return for funding in typically commercially unattractive, however essential, public service content material. Conventional broadcasters consider it’s commercially crucial the principles that give public broadcasters prominence are prolonged to smart-TV interfaces, and high billing on streaming and on-demand providers similar to Sky Q and Netflix.
The tradition secretary, Oliver Dowden, has mentioned the general evaluation aimed to create a “truthful and well-functioning system … match for the twenty first century”. The query is what half will Channel 4 play underneath non-public, very probably overseas, possession.
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