Channel 4, the public television broadcasting company that gave Britons the likes of Gogglebox and Location, Location, Location among others, is set to be privatised – much to the chagrin, I imagine, of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, had she been alive to witness it.
 
Channel 4 was launched in 1982 as a publicly-owned television broadcaster fully self-funded via advertising – an innovative commercial structure that’s hard to imagine was ideated by Thatcher and her home secretary Willie Whitelaw, given this government’s historic reputation for privatisation. As early as 1989, Thatcher rebuked the idea of privatising the channel, fearing it would reduce its quality. In the thirty plus years since, governments and ministers alike have toyed with privatising the channel, never truly succeeding in their endeavour. Attempts were made again in 1996, which were blocked by Channel 4’s then-chairman Sir Michael Bishop’s appeal to John Major, and again in 2016, when a House of Lords committee decision halted any talk of a sale.
 
On Monday, culture secretary Nadine Dorries confirmed the UK government is pushing ahead with plans to sell the broadcaster and anticipated on Twitterthat a White Paper will be published “in due course”. The minister also alluded to the possible reasons behind the timing of this decision, arguing that “government ownership is holding Channel 4 back from competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon”. Sources close to the government indicate the plan is to sell the company for north of £1 billion and reinvest the money into the UK’s burgeoning independent film and television sector.
 
While the reasons behind the timing of the sell-off are yet to be fully clarified, the government has already demonstrated what little it knows of how the broadcaster operates. In a recently resurfaced video, Dorries appeared in front of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in November 2021 to present the government’s intention to push ahead with Channel 4’s sale. In the video, Dorries claimed the broadcaster was “in receipt of public money” but was immediately corrected by a shocked Damien Green.
 
Dorries’ stumble was an unfortunate first of many since.  
 
The government’s intention to reinvest the money into the UK’s film and television sector has been widely criticised as redundant at best. In fact, Channel 4 already purchases the licensing to air independent production companies’ content on their channel.
 
Also, about that competition? Channel 4 seems to be better funded and is arguably ahead of its privately-owned national competitors on digital development. But privatising it so it can compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon? A non-starter argument: these are digital mammoths with a $100 billion combined spend on content production per year – Channel 4 is hardly the competition here.
 
The UK’s political love affair with industry privatisation is already one for the history books, but if Channel 4 can operate during Thatcherism in its current format, the odds are it can survive long after this government.