Prospective buyers will see a clear tension between public service obligations and making profits
Let’s try to take the government’s case for privatising Channel 4 at face value. It runs something like this: far from being motivated by revenge for critical coverage, ministers are aiming to ensure the channel thrives in the long-term.
According to this line of thinking, Channel 4, despite its healthy-looking record surplus of £74m in 2020, is in danger of being crushed by Netflix, Amazon Prime et al in the new era of subscription and streaming. It relies on advertising income and, under its current remit, can’t produce programmes in-house. Look forward a decade and the sums spent with independent UK producers could dwindle. What worked in the past doesn’t guarantee success in the future.
