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Privatising Channel 4

Started by steveh, June 18, 2021, 11:45:43 AM

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Leo2112

One of GB News's major financial investors exploring takeover bid for Channel 4 - https://www.reuters.com/business/discovery-exploring-takeover-bid-uks-channel-4-telegraph-2021-07-31/

QuoteU.S.-based broadcaster Discovery Inc (DISCA.O) is holding informal discussions about a potential takeover bid for Britain's state-owned Channel 4 television broadcaster, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.

The potential bid process is being managed by UK Government Investments, the paper reported, adding that a deal was not expected to be completed until the middle of next year.

Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Britain's government on July 6 announced a consultation on the sale of Channel 4, and it was considering changes to the operating model of the broadcaster, including its ownership, remit and obligations.

Wouldn't be too surprised if this deal has already been agreed, it's ideal for the tories.

idunnosomename

pardon my french but what the fucking cunt is even on Channel 4 these days other than the news

Pranet

Quote from: Leo2112 on August 01, 2021, 10:42:23 PM
One of GB News's major financial investors exploring takeover bid for Channel 4 - https://www.reuters.com/business/discovery-exploring-takeover-bid-uks-channel-4-telegraph-2021-07-31/

Wouldn't be too surprised if this deal has already been agreed, it's ideal for the tories.

Christ. I mean, I don't know why I am surprised, of course this was going to happen.

steveh

Discovery's controlling shareholder John Malone is also primarily an asset stripper. Most of his career has been buying companies, selling off the non-core parts someone will pay him for, shutting down any parts that aren't making immediate profits even if it will hit things down the line (such as R&D), paring the rest down to the minimum staff needed and then when the company is able to show a profit selling it on to someone else who has to deal with the long term consequences of what was done.

Buelligan

Channel 4's better than most (news) and I feel a bit sad about the tories killing it (if they do) but isn't this a bit two bald men arguing over a comb?  Isn't TV dead?

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: idunnosomename on August 02, 2021, 01:33:04 AM
pardon my french but what the fucking cunt is even on Channel 4 these days other than the news

It's the principal more than the product though.  Yet another thing we "own" that the tories are selling off to make a profit from. 

They've already sacked off most local authorities (central government funding completely withdrawn from most LAs from 2020, which is why we're seeing some of them go bankrupt), they're chipping away at the NHS, they'll almost certainly have another go at public land and forests.  On and on.  And the more they sell off the more they can say "well there's no point putting all of our money into these one or two things". 

As it is, Discovery is probably the best of a bad bunch (which says far more about the bad bunch than it does Discovery).

steveh

Deadline for responses to the consultation was yesterday. DCMS has already brought in investment bank JP Morgan to advise on a potential auction.

The Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has said that the channel will need more cash to survive which has to come from the private sector, but Channel 4 denies it needs this. A report suggests that to get to the profitability a commercial operator would want Channel 4 would need to slash its £660m programming budget (£500m of which is original shows) by up to half and privatisation would result in the closure of as many as 60 out of the 200 independent production companies who supplied it in the last two years.

Utterly pointless move.

Blumf

Bump!

It's happening!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60985496
QuoteThe government has decided to go ahead with plans to privatise Channel 4.

A source said ministers believed public ownership was holding the broadcaster back "in the face of a rapidly changing media landscape".

Plans for the sale, on which there has been a public consultation, will be included in May's Queen's Speech.

But Channel 4 called it "disappointing" that ministers had made their decision despite "significant public interest concerns" over privatisation.

Money made from the sale will be reinvested in a "creative dividend" to be shared among the TV industry, with some of it earmarked for independent production companies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60993888
QuoteChannel 4 stars Matt Lucas and Kirstie Allsopp are among the figures who have raised concerns about the government's plan to privatise the broadcaster.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries tweeted on Monday that "government ownership is holding Channel 4 back".

She said selling it to a private owner would give it "the tools and freedom to flourish and thrive as a public service broadcaster long into the future".

But Allsopp described her argument as "a load of utter twaddle".

QuoteLet's just get this out of the way, LLL makes a fortune for C4, shows like mine are very unlikely to be axed, it's news & current affairs, and cutting edge dramas which are likely to be thinned out. Profit will be king and the passion & inclusion of Channel 4 will be lost

Well, it was good, back in the 80s and 90s, now expect it to devolve into 100% reality TV garbage with Fox News sprinkled about.

kalowski

Allsopp in correct comment shocker!
Although C4 has been rubbish for years.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: kalowski on April 05, 2022, 02:04:16 PMAlthough C4 has been rubbish for years.

I can't say I've watched it much but it's still commissioning bafta-winning stuff others probably wouldn't touch.

QuoteWould we have had RTD's "It's A Sin", or Jack Thorne's "Help" or Nina Manzoor's "We Are Lady Parts" - ALL of which have been nominated for multiple TV BAFTAs just last week - if Channel 4 was a privatised company?

I'm not so sure.

https://twitter.com/scottygb/status/1511044529033551880

Admittedly of these I only watched It's a Sin.

kalowski

OK. And It's a Sin was fucking brilliant, I'll give you that.

It might be nostalgia but it feels like there's a lot more shit on C4 than the 80s/early 90s.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: kalowski on April 05, 2022, 02:11:50 PMOK. And It's a Sin was fucking brilliant, I'll give you that.

It might be nostalgia but it feels like there's a lot more shit on C4 than the 80s/early 90s.

Part of it probably is rose-tinted spectacles, and a lack of other options, but I also think Big Brother might have a bit to answer for since it took up the entire summer schedules and other gambles were dropped onto digital sister stations with smaller audiences and budgets.

poo

no cunt watches C4 and yet every cunt is offended

Fambo Number Mive

The gaslighting from Dorres is incredible. Claiming it well help Channel 4, when everyone involved with producing content for Channel 4 is against it. Even Allsop is against.

A handy way for the government to reduce the amount of investigative journalism and documentaries that people watch. One more step towards a less educated, less informed population. Next step will be selling off the BBC.

Kankurette

They've already got GB News. What more do they want?

Sebastian Cobb

Have we ruled out Dorries just wanting to lower the standards of a channel enough that she can write for it?


touchingcloth

I've just cum.

It's still attracted by slime.

jobotic



Of course I'm sure talk of fascism is still seen as hysterical.

Bernice

More vandalism from the nasty cunts who destroy every good thing they see in this country while loudly claiming the mantle of 'patriots'. I'm sure they will continue to win every election for the next hundred years, ever immiserating the people of this blighted isle culturally and materially, while successfully casting the blame for why everything is so shit elsewhere. Such is the way of things.

Fambo Number Mive


Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on April 05, 2022, 02:13:26 PMPart of it probably is rose-tinted spectacles, and a lack of other options, but I also think Big Brother might have a bit to answer for since it took up the entire summer schedules and other gambles were dropped onto digital sister stations with smaller audiences and budgets.

While not disappearing entirely, Channel 4's original remit has diminished so much it's difficult now to remember what a ground-breaking broadcaster it was at its peak. I'd honestly say that for a time it was hugely important for the cultural life of the whole country, in terms of being a big investment in a really diverse range of arts, music, animation, film, comedy...not all of it was always good of course, but the fact they took risks on the kind of content no other channel would put out made it worthwhile.

I don't think Big Brother was a bad thing in itself(at least not to begin with), but it was a turning point for channels realising they didn't need to invest in the kind of niche content that was formerly their bread and butter in to fill up gaps in the late night schedules, when you could just point a camera at a people sleeping for four hours and get reasonable viewing figures. So things like animation and short films strands started to get short thrift, the tone of the channel also shifted so anything too artsy could only be approached through the lens of ironic distance. But I think the rot really set in when they launched multiple channels without having enough content to justify it, spreading the good stuff way too thin. I'm not sure anyone's ever been able to effectively explain the need for 4Music.

Regardless though, still a sad day.

Pranet

I would imagine the extra channels are there to fund programming on the main channels in the main.

And I'd assume that the change in channel 4's output came because of changes in it's funding- having to fully fund itself, wheras for example in the early years it was supported by ITV- and changes to its public service remit though I am not an expert in the exact changes.

Whatever I think of Channel 4's output now, it is difficult to see how privatising it will improve it.

In the Guardian today it says "Analysts at Ampere argue Channel 4's programme budget could be cut by 40% or even 50% under a new profit-seeking ownership, with a knock-on effect of putting as many as 60 small production companies across the UK out of business."

It isn't going to the shit stuff that goes first.

But the tories said they'd do this because Channel 4 were nasty to them during the election campaign...

beanheadmcginty

Imagine how depressed Murun Buchstansangur must be right now.

Sherman Krank

Quote from: jobotic on April 05, 2022, 04:10:41 PM

I heard that Arron Banks once passed up the chance to purchase a McLaren F1 because he didn't like the steering wheel being on the left.






Quote from: Pranet on April 05, 2022, 05:21:54 PMI would imagine the extra channels are there to fund programming on the main channels in the main.

And I'd assume that the change in channel 4's output came because of changes in it's funding- having to fully fund itself, wheras for example in the early years it was supported by ITV- and changes to its public service remit though I am not an expert in the exact changes.


That's true, I have heard it said that losing the support of ITV was a big factor in the channel becoming more focussed on ratings-grabbing content over minority-interest programming.

H-O-W-L

E4 was pretty alright if you dodged the insufferable Youth Programming shit (no that wasn't all of it) and tapped in for the US imports, fillums, and the few dramas they had and the like. No clue what it's like nowaday because who the fuck watches telly anymore?

Fambo Number Mive

It's so demoralising how this is going to sail through the House of Commons with the Tories' massive majority. Will the House of Lords be able to do much?

And of course a large section of the public will support it because it "annoys liberals/lefties". I think some on the right would encourage cannibalism and bestiality if they were told to do it to "annoy the lefties".

I think when Britain finally becomes uninhabitable due to the climate crisis the government will employ someone from GB News to sail round people sitting on top of their rooftops shouting "This is really annoying the lefties, the fact that we are finding new and creative uses for our roofs. And all this flooding is the fault of the EU, immigrants and Corbyn."

Goldentony

Quote from: Kankurette on April 05, 2022, 03:02:13 PMThey've already got GB News. What more do they want?

remember what Bruce Springsteen wrote about the privatisation of Channel 4 in Badlands? a king isn't satisfied til he rules everything

Kankurette

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on April 05, 2022, 05:27:25 PMImagine how depressed Murun Buchstansangur must be right now.
You'd be depressed if you were a walking grey bollock tbf.

Jasha

Quote from: kalowski on April 05, 2022, 02:11:50 PMOK. And It's a Sin was fucking brilliant, I'll give you that.

It might be nostalgia but it feels like there's a lot more shit on C4 than the 80s/early 90s.

Think that's true of most channels these days