Downing Street’s plan to privatise Channel 4 is already facing a Tory revolt – less than 24 hours after the plans were confirmed. On Monday night, the channel’s chief executive told staff that the government plans to proceed with privatisation. The official line from Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is that this will ‘give Channel 4 the tools and freedom to flourish and thrive as a public service broadcaster long into the future’ and compete with streaming giants like Netflix.
Only the broadcaster takes a different view: that this is a mistake – and plenty of senior Conservatives agree. Former Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson has described it as ‘the opposite of levelling up’ – citing production companies across Scotland from whom the broadcaster commissions programmes. Meanwhile, former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he is against it on the grounds that ‘Channel 4 provides competition to the BBC on what’s called public service broadcasting, the kinds of programmes that are not commercially viable, and I think it would be a shame to lose that’.
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