Channel 4 privatisation ‘overwhelmingly negative’ on creative, commercial basis
Editor
| 05 May 2016
The UK Government’s rumoured plans to sell off its stake in Channel 4 would likely not benefit the UK economy, the broadcasting industry or indeed creative industries, an academic report suggests.
The Consequences of Privatising Channel 4 report, commissioned by the country’s fourth largest broadcaster and written by Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management and marketing, London Business School, and Gillian Brooks, post-doctoral research fellow, Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation, fundamentally contradicted the view of current UK Culture Secretary John Whittingdale that Channel 4 could be better off and have a stronger future in private hands.
The report analysed the likely consequences of privatising C4 while still aiming to retain the remit of the channel which since launch in November 1982 has striven to provide diversity and offer a cultural alternative to output from the BBC and ITV. Accepting that there was at present no specific privatisation proposal, the analysis assumed what such a proposal might be and sought to address many other uncertainties.
Barwise and Brooks made four key conclusions: there is no need to privatise C4 to protect its distinctive remit; privatising C4 would almost certainly make its remit less sustainable; it would also be hard to attract credible bidders for C4 without dropping or weakening the current 100% publisher-broadcaster model; privatisation would also be likely to impact adversely.
The second conclusion in the report was seen as particularly damaging. The authors argue that effects of privatisation would be particularly felt by independent producers, especially smaller ones and those in the nations and regions; the wider broadcasting ecology and creative industries, especially film; and in terms of the societal aspects of the Channel 4 remit such as its commitment to long-form news, current affairs and other programmes that tackle social and cultural issues across a range of genres.
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