Nadine Dorries, a person so unfit for cabinet office that if a case were to be made for the collapse in the quality of government in the UK she alone could provide all the evidence, has decided Channel 4 must be sold to supposedly promote its freedom.
The reality is that no one believes Channel 4 needs more freedom. A broadcaster simultaneously capable of delivering first rate news and Naked Attraction has all the freedom it already needs. So the reasons for this sake are, typically, spurious.
What is the motivation then?
A bung for friends?
The destruction of value?
The undermining of a critical media source?
The forerunner for selling the BBC?
The raising of funds for a tax give away?
Who knows, except we can be sure none are about defending a broadcaster seeking impartiality in the face of other media sources whose primary goal is to spread misinformation.
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I don’t think we’re looking at a XOR. It’s at least an OR – possibly an AND. 🙂
I continue to think that it is ideology. To paraphrase Jane Austen, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single state in receipt of billions a year, must be in want of privitisation”.
I continue to find that at a corporate level, outsourcing is dangerous to both health and wealth ( including the enhanced potential for corruption). Obviously some is sensible, but don’t have the knee jerk reaction of the Tories.
The reason the government has given for selling off Ch 4 is that the billion or so that they will get for it will enable them to invest in a number of projects, the underlying assumption being that they need some extra money in order to do this. Of course, as we know, they don’t need it. It is as spurious a reason as the others you have mentioned.
What is needed is a way of getting across the central idea of MMT that the government has all the money it needs and does not need to indulge in cultural vandalism to create more for any purpose as they have all they need. How to get this and other MMT ideas across to the public in a dynamic way — what about a crown-funded billboard campaign along the lines of Led by Donkeys? Perhaps Led by Donkeys could be persuaded to become involved in such an endeavor.
A campaign headed up by Led By Donkeys, if they can see the reasoning behind MMT, could be just the thing. They seem bright enough, so it might be worth a try. Why not get in touch with them and see how it goes. What’s the worst that could happen?
Ideas on this are developing
Dorries said this last year.
The embarrassing moment came when the culture secretary appeared before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sports select committee, where she was discussing the future of Channel 4.
She told the committee: “I would argue that to say that just because Channel 4’s been established as a public service broadcaster and just because it’s in receipt of public money we should never audit the future of Channel 4 and we should never evaluate how Channel 4 looks in the future and whether or not it’s a sustainable and viable model. It’s quite right that the government should do that.”
https://mediatel.co.uk/news/2021/11/25/nadine-dorries-appears-unsure-of-channel-4-funding-in-select-committee-hearing/
In receipt of public money? Simply not true, it is funded by advertising. Either she is incapable of getting basic facts right or she is just another Tory liar looking to make a quick billion that the Tories will squander elsewhere. I fancy it is the latter.
Richard – you summed up C4 a treat.
I think its transatlantic – they’re hoping some American Neo-libs pick it up or that Murdoch gets his hands on it. Then they have another media outlet for their fascist way forward. You can tell that this is going to happen because of the warm smiles Cathy Newman has been flashing at Tory ministers like Nadhim Zahawi .
And the receipt will help their closed loop tax and spend narrative.
PSR, I may be being thick, but when you write “warm smiles Cathy Newman has been flashing at Tory ministers”, I am afraid I am missing the point. Sorry.
Larry
Cathy Newman is one of those C4 presenters with whom I have had issues for sometime.
She recently did an interview with Nadhim Zahawi (not a very nice man in my view) which was more like a profile piece than TV journalism. She smiled all the way through it so much I bet she got jaw ache.
Last night on C4 she did the same to some Tory character that everyone knows is a wanker and gave them a really easy ride.
Newman is someone who in my view stands to be major beneficiary of privatisation if they retain a news division as she obviously making herself Tory friendly.
I do miss Jon Snow.
The other correspondents like Clare Fallon and Victoria MacDonald and even Guru-Murthy I am a bit more worried about to be honest. I trust them. But not Newman. No way. She’s out for herself.
We could end up with a sort of Tory Fox News set up and I’m not joking either.
I have a lot to be grateful to Channel 4 for. What better place than to mark a tribute than a serious blog on economics, accounting, social justice and money!
Their coverage of the AIDS outbreak in the 1980s was an outstanding piece of public TV for a teenager as I was at the time, as was their showing of ALL of Claude Lanzmann’s epic Shoah documentary about the Holocaust one Saturday in the early 1990’s. Imagine clearing your programming now for something like that? Incredible and honourable. There have been so many good documentaries over the years too – ‘Dispatches’ etc.
And then there’s the comedy over which I have cried tears of joy over the years:
Drop the Dead Donkey (the best political satire I’ve ever seen – sod In The Thick of It – vicious and fantastic).
Black Books (kills me to watch it even now – my 19 year old daughter is addicted and I will lose the DVDs when she goes to Uni. Bernard is the antithesis of the Thatcherite businessman – total gentle counter culture – and Irish too! What’s not to like!?).
Spaced ( if you are under 60 and have not watched this – where were you!!!?).
Green Wing (visceral, clever NHS naughtiness ahead of its time, when the NHS was a better service and you could afford to laugh about it. Unlike now).
Brass Eye (Chris Morris – very controversial, wickedly funny but ‘Jam’ was much darker and less known).
Father Ted ( Took me some time to like this but I got there ‘cos I think its about religion – not Irishness).
Vic Reeves Big Night Out ( A complete one off. Chaos as comedy or was it the other way round? Bonkers!).
Shameless – (‘Tony Blair!? Fuck ‘Im!!’ – somehow you laughed with the characters not at them and what did the writers spot about Blair that we missed at the time?).
Whose Line is it Anyway (extremely funny improv show).
Catastrophe (brutally honest transatlantic bonking fest turned modern relationship study).
Nathan Barley ( perhaps Chris Morris’ (with Charlie Brooker) most subversive comedy work – a must have whose observations on the vacuity and trend setting potential of modern media have all come sadly true. Geek Pie! Too clever for many).
The Comic Strip Presents ( The Famous 5 knock off ‘Five Go Mad in Dorset’ (1982), ‘Five Go Mad on Mescalin’ (1983), ‘Bad News Tour’ (1983) and my all time favourite ‘The Yob’ (1988) – a treatise on British class and football culture all revolving around a story nicked from The Fly – you will pee yourself laughing).
Yes and the films too – Brassed Off and (wait for it) THE number One – Whitnail and I. My favourite film of all time. It’s like an old friend – not a film.
I wonder who will get the back catalogue?
…which sets us up nicely to do this again when they privatise the BBC at some point.
None of these actually produced by C4 of course….all by the private sector, which names this so bizarre
Thanks for the clarification, PSR. I also hold Zadhawi in extremely low regard. I also miss Jon Snow. The rest can’t quite meet the standard he set. Guru Murthy tries, but he hasn’t got what it takes. However, Linsey Hilsum and Paraic O’brien do well when they are on. But they are hardly in the studio. The econ correspondents are, sadly, macroeconomically illiterate. On micro issues they are usually OK, but utter rubbish when dealing with the economics of the state.
C4 has never done economics well
I do think Krishnan Guru Murthy can be very good
Cathy Newman less so since working on Times Radio
My gripe is with the editors though: they have been frightened of taking on issues since privatisation was announced leaving the field for Ross Atkins, who makes the rest of the BBC look so inadequate
The funny thing is C4 was set up under the first Thatcher government! A state owned enterprise (albeit commercially run) under that arch privatiser
Does Channel 4 actually have a future or will it simply dwindle in value as it becomes less and less relevant to a generation that watch exactly what they want through other services? Is the government selling now whilst it still has some value?
I look at my four children and they never watch live TV. They always stream and when doing that they only watch either the big US streaming services or YouTube. They never watch Channel 4, the BBC or ITV whether on live or streaming services. Not good news when Channel 4 claims to have a target audience of 16-34.
Who is going to be watching Channel 4 in 20 years time and how will the advertising revenue hold up with a dwindling market? Unlike the BBC it isn’t propped up by a compulsory licensing fee.
Not necessarily a reason to privatise, but I personally think the writing is on the wall whatever the government decides to do.
Here’s the video of Dorries getting C4’s funding totally wrong and how she squirms when put right.
“and so, although it’s yeah, and that….”
At least when Johnson lies he can put a sentence together.
To think that people actually voted for her!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E9WhayBfDY
Whist the reason for the sell off does look like revenge from The Tories, Channel 4 has been ninety percent mediocrity for the past 25 years.
Any creativity like The Big Breakfast, Desmond’s and even The Word if that’s your thing have long gone, replaced by imported sitcoms and Bake Off etc…
Yes, it has had some decent news coverage, but now it resembles all the other TV dross that saturates the media.
One thing that seems to be absent from certain commenters is who set it up and why.
Strange also is how it is being sold off as it now very far away from what it was set up to be.
C4 News is my first, and often only broadcast TV port of call. Not perfect, but in my opinion, by a long way the best we have. ‘Walter presents’ has also brought European drama to a wide audience, and all without a blockbuster budget.
There was supposed to be a move to Leeds, and a creative hub in Glasgow: aye, that’ll be right. Sell-off is always the neoliberal way when they do not like proof that another model works better, and cheaper for consumers.
It will go, if only because the Government is sliding it out while there are bigger crises to deflect public attention from the cheap shoddiness of it all. In which case I personally would like to see a consortium put together with Jon Snow at the head; primarily because I surmise that will rally the C4 staffers. Then the Scottish Government to step out of the British shadows for once; put a deal together with Glasgow City Council to offer a fantastic site, resource, tax (as far as they can) package, and bring C4 to Glasgow. Even Scottish indpendence would not be aproblem, because in that event Scotland, not Westminster will control the spectrum. It won’t happen, but something like it should happen.
Other than C4 being based in both Glasgow & Leeds, I fundamentally agree with your stance, John.
The reason Dorries etc give for Channel 4 privatisation is so it will get investment and will therefore be able to compete with the likes of Netflix and the other global streamers. This as spurious a reason as can be imagined. In the unlikely event that C4 could compete it would require so much cash to produce the massive amount of content that Netflix, Sony, Universal et al spend on feature films and other drama only a company with the deepest of pockets would be interested. That would change the whole nature and culture of C4 as to make it nothing like it is now which is a niche broadcaster serving a UK audience and buying its product from in the main small uK producers. That begs the question as to why would any large company want to buy C4 and put in such an investment. It wouldn’t. C4 has little to no value to an international company in terms of making it compete with streamers. It has little value to them in terms of access to a UK audience. Viacom paid about £450m for Channel 5 far less than the £1bn that is being put on C4. I suspect not much more than that will be offered.
The likely reason for the Government getting rid of C4 is to get rid of critical content. C4 news is one of the few counter balances to a right wing news agenda. The Tories boycotted appearing on the channel for a long time in a childish expression of pettiness. It no doubt thinks that it panders to some woke, middle class mildly anti-Tory audience and it doesn’t like to be criticised.
Channel 4 may not appeal to a mass audience or to many young people (but what channel does appeal to young people) but that in a sense is what it is for. The UK population is ageing so the channel has some way to go before the obit needs to be written and the fact that it pays for itself under the remit it has been given should be enough.
The Government takes us all for fools who cannot see through their lies in this and in many other things. There will be no massive injection of funds into Channel 4 by a buyer but the Tories have put in place a new obliging Chairman at Channel 4 and a new chairman at Ofcom to allow any sale to be wafted through which will benefit no one.
Dorries is an imbecile for many reasons, many of which have been mentioned here. Ianucci has, in my view, correctly pointed out that in addition to comparing apes and oranges, Netflix runs on debt. Not a viable business for a news organisation, which Ch4 significantly purports to be.
The motivation for the sale of channel 4 in my opinion is the moving of more of the media into a position where it is under the influence of Tufton St.