After months ducking the issue, the Prime Minister was forced to confirm last week that the Government is considering selling off Channel 4 to the private sector.
It came following a question from the former broadcaster, now SNP culture and media spokesman, John Nicolson at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Tory Government has been very noisy about BBC charter renewal but deliberately quiet about the fact it was proceeding with proposals to privatise C4.
It seems Culture Secretary John Whittingdale is hell-bent on the move. Despite publicly denying any decision for some time, he now says it would be OK as the channel would retain its remit in the event of privatisation.
Let’s be clear the sell-off would be bad for journalism, the creative sector and would mean job losses. The financial case doesn’t even stack up, according to C4 chairman Lord Burns, who claimed there was “little financial benefit” in Government plans to privatise the broadcaster.
It’s thought a sell-off could raise more than £1 billion, but funnily enough it seems George Osborne is lukewarm on the idea as he doesn’t think the benefit outweighs the stooshie it would create.
Selling the company to the private sector would also oblige it to reduce the number of independent firms it commissions, meaning jobs would be lost.
C4’s chief executive David Abraham said privatisation could lead to it commissioning from a similar number of “indies” as ITV and Channel 5, since working with a wide range of such firms was “not an efficient model to maximise profits”.
The sell-off is bad for journalism as it risks the channel’s editorial independence being compromised by shareholders and advertisers.
Management has proposed an alternative company structure limited by guarantee that would maintain non-profit status, but John Whittingdale isn’t interested and is hell-bent on privatisation.
There is the possibility of a green paper on the issue in 2016. I hope party politics are put aside and MPs from across the chamber join the SNP to stop Whittingdale in his tracks. Can you imagine 7pm without Jon Snow and his colourful ties?