Channel 4 to be privatised

[gottago]

An ITV bid for Channel 4 is an interesting idea and of course would essentially take things back to pre-93. It would probably lead to a closure of channels, both out of competition concerns and also because of overlaps - I can't see both E4 and ITV2 surviving.

I agree they would certainly be forced to dispose of a few of them, but it's interesting that the only real overlap is E4 and ITV2. All the other channels target quite different audiences, which is perhaps an indicator that ITV might make a serious bid for C4 as they'd be scooping up readymade audiences that their channels and streaming offer currently don't often cater to.

Secondly some people seem convinced that it will go to but that's not necessarily the case. In fact it's probably jot that attractive to a big multinational media company...

One of the unique things about Channel 4 is that it's never made its own programmes, in fact its not been allowed to. Therefore it owns very little intellectual property - any new owner won't get a massive back-catalogue of programmes or much they can exploit. That's going to make C4 a lot less attractive to buy. In these days of streaming its content that's the king and the production companies own the content

The new owners will get a well established brand which is barely known outside the UK and a good chunk of spectrum, some of which is currently restricted as to what they can do with it.

Doesn't look like that good a deal for a foreign company, especially as there aren't any barriers to enter the UK market if they wanted to

Worth remembering that C5 was largely in the same boat as C4 IP-wise when it was bought by Viacom for £450m. It did have a small in house production company at that point but the overwhelming majority of its programmes were bought from indies and C5 owned none of the IP (which arguably is still the case today). They've kept the channel largely separate from any of their international brands and have run it profitably most years they've owned it.

I don't know what the IP situation is in each country but Discovery have also done this with a few larger broadcasters in Poland, Scandinavia, and most recently New Zealand, so there is certainly precedent for big US companies buying up broadcasters that don't really feed into their global eco-systems.

Despite the moans about linear dying thanks to streaming, commercial broadcasters are still raking it in with ad money and the opportunity to buy one of the UK's largest commercial broadcasters with a very established and well used streaming service will be of huge interest to a lot of large media companies.

[Jon]

Why is everyone saying ITV should buy Channel 4? It would form a monopoly.

I’m not sure anyone is saying ITV ‘should’ buy Channel 4. There would be competition concerns certainly, but that’s more to do with the advertising market than concerns about the viewer getting less choice.

As I said earlier if ITV were to buy it would probably be the best outcome for those who don’t want Channel 4 to change much. It would be in their interest to make it distinct from ITV and savings could be made behind the scenes that could be invested into contact.

With regards to Channel 4 not producing their own programmes, they musr retain some rights hence why BritBox and All 4 have so must archive content? That’s got to be appealing for an ITV that’s going big on streaming at the moment.

[Markymark]

Depending on who Channel 4 gets sold to (assuming there's no u-turns) it'll be interesting to see what in happens to its other channels. I'd like to think that Film4 is in a strong position, especially as films are produced under the Film4 brand, and unlikely to face closure. As for E4, More 4, 4 Seven, and 4 Music these channels are arguably weaker in content, and depending on who took over Channel 4 are at greater risk of potential closure.

As I said above, I can't imagine both E4 and ITV2 surviving should ITV own Channel 4

No, I agree. I wonder if C4 could be positioned to become 'ITV 2' in all but name. Keep the C4 branding, but effectively give ITV and C4 the same relationship that BBC 1 and 2 have ? There was a bit of that pre 1993 of course, but it might allow ITV to take on more long form sports coverage, using C4 as the secondary outlet, or is ITV 4 already entrenched in the minds of the viewers for that ?

[gottago]

Why is everyone saying ITV should buy Channel 4? It would form a monopoly.

I’m not sure anyone is saying ITV ‘should’ buy Channel 4. There would be competition concerns certainly, but that’s more to do with the advertising market than concerns about the viewer getting less choice.

As I said earlier if ITV were to buy it would probably be the best outcome for those who don’t want Channel 4 to change much. It would be in their interest to make it distinct from ITV and savings could be made behind the scenes that could be invested into contact.

With regards to Channel 4 not producing their own programmes, they musr retain some rights hence why BritBox and All 4 have so must archive content? That’s got to be appealing for an ITV that’s going big on streaming at the moment.

They retain UK and Ireland distribution rights: https://distribution.channel4.com/page/about

[Andrew]

'Thanks 4 the memories' ... while I enjoy the wordplay, it's a ridiculously melodramatic headline. Reads like an obituary.

You'd think they were announcing that the channel was to close entirely with immediate effect the way some people are going on, rather than the story being a proposed change in ownership.

It's a bit of a hot topic among us enthusiasts but I question whether the change will actually make any discernible difference to the casual viewer, or whether your average punter will actually really care who owns a TV channel at all.

I've had a couple of friends and family ask me what the sale will actually mean, expecting me to break out into my usual detail I use for such things like 'Why is the local TV news not on HD ?', and 'what's all this about landline phones going ?', but with this I can't seem to muster any inner passion at all.

Let’s just say I feel much more strongly about the BBC keeping the licence fee than I do the privatisation of Channel 4. I bet until recently most people didn’t realise Channel 4 had a special status and wasn’t just the same as ITV or Channel 5

It’s also pretty funny that the prospect of being bought by a big bad American company is seen as a outrage by the very same people who I bet regularly shun British programming made by British broadcasters to watch American programming on American streaming services.

[CATV]

As much as Channel 4 has it's own identity a lot of contain could easily transferred to the ITV channels. E4 could basically merge into ITV 2. With ITVX in mind if ITV buy the Channel 4 Network I would assume it would asset strip it. Slim the Channel 4 Network to Channel 4 with some rights to some programs and maybe even Film 4 Productions. The rest of the network would merge with ITV by closing the rest of the Channel 4 Channels and expanding ITV's channel portfolio. ITV Comedy, ITV Entertainment, ITV Drama, ITV Movies, ITV Lifestyle, etc. The amount of content it could have to expand it's channel portfolio but also and more importantly it's new streaming service ITVX would be hugely valuable. ITV could then sell the new slimed down Channel 4 Network off (maybe to UKTV) at a later date. This is why ITV would buy the Channel 4 Network.

[Whataday]

As I said above, I can't imagine both E4 and ITV2 surviving should ITV own Channel 4

I can't imagine E4 or ITV2 surviving in the long term anyway.

[Brekkie]

I'm more optimistic about their futures than most here - ITV2, E4, ITV3, Film4 and ITV4 are amongst the most popular free to air content providers so you don't close them just for the sake of it. If ITV2 needed to create ITVBe because it had too much advertising to sell, through granted a few years back now, I'm not sure closing E4 is justified.

However I suspect the BOX channels might have to be sold off as a condition of any ITV purchase, and perhaps throwing E4 in with that could be a possibility if there are genuine competition concerns about ITV2 and E4 sharing owners, which ultimately would likely mean a rebrand for E4 - and perhaps a long overdue rebrand for 4Music too alongside it. However even if E4 was strengthened in that scenario in the linear environment it's likely to lose out in the on demand market from not being on All4 (or ITVx) which kind of goes against the whole justification for selling it off.

[JAS84]

An ITV bid for Channel 4 is an interesting idea and of course would essentially take things back to pre-93.

I've never got my head around of the 'ownership' of C4 1982-1993. The ITV companies financed it via an IBA levy. In return they were able to sell advertising on C4, and 'keep' the revenue. However, they couldn't influence the programming, well, sort of not, they managed to dump horse racing on there for instance.

Wasn't it a subsidiary company of the IBA ? Except the IBA wasn't a company itself, and regulated C4 ?

Not just horse racing. Schools programmes too - moving them to Channel 4 allowed them to launch This Morning.

Why is everyone saying ITV should buy Channel 4? It would form a monopoly.

It would've in 1993 when ITV and Channel 4 were the only widely available free to air commercial broadcasters. Not nowadays.

[Markymark]

An ITV bid for Channel 4 is an interesting idea and of course would essentially take things back to pre-93.

I've never got my head around of the 'ownership' of C4 1982-1993. The ITV companies financed it via an IBA levy. In return they were able to sell advertising on C4, and 'keep' the revenue. However, they couldn't influence the programming, well, sort of not, they managed to dump horse racing on there for instance.

Wasn't it a subsidiary company of the IBA ? Except the IBA wasn't a company itself, and regulated C4 ?

Not just horse racing. Schools programmes too - moving them to Channel 4 allowed them to launch This Morning.

Yes, although the IBA didn't allow that until the C4 transmitter coverage had reached parity with ITV. They also moved the 'all day' party conference coverage to C4 in 1984?

[MrBiggieSMLZ]

I personally think if ITV were to buy it, it could be very much the end of Channel 4 altogether, with all combined channels undergoing a rebrand somewhat. Here are a few minor exampes:

• ITV2 -> ITV Comedy

• ITV3 -> ITV Classics

• E4 -> ITV Max

• Film4 -> ITV Cinema

• 4Music -> ITV Music

And if that wasn't bad enough, the continuity announcers from Channel 4 and its sister channels could join ITV channels, and even the Channel 4 News presenting team could join ITV News - I'd certainly pay to see Krishnan Guru-Murphy present News at Ten!

[nwtv2003]

I've never got my head around of the 'ownership' of C4 1982-1993. The ITV companies financed it via an IBA levy. In return they were able to sell advertising on C4, and 'keep' the revenue. However, they couldn't influence the programming, well, sort of not, they managed to dump horse racing on there for instance.

Wasn't it a subsidiary company of the IBA ? Except the IBA wasn't a company itself, and regulated C4 ?

Not just horse racing. Schools programmes too - moving them to Channel 4 allowed them to launch This Morning.

Yes, although the IBA didn't allow that until the C4 transmitter coverage had reached parity with ITV. They also moved the 'all day' party conference coverage to C4 in 1984?

That’s right, ITV wanted Schools programmes on Channel 4 as early as 1984, but the IBA said no because of transmitter coverage. I believe a few of ITV’s minority aimed programmes also switched along with operas.

Going back to privatisation, assuming it does happen I think it’ll be more than likely the channel would be sold to an existing broadcaster looking to enhance its portfolio and not a new outlet or one seeking to expand, ie Murdoch.

Whilst I’m still against the sell off in principle, some valid points have been made about its creativity in its output over the last few years. I’m not sure whether a sell off would solve that issue if money is taken out of the channel.

[Markymark]

And if that wasn't bad enough, the continuity announcers from Channel 4 and its sister channels could join ITV channels, and even the Channel 4 News presenting team could join ITV News - I'd certainly pay to see Krishnan Guru-Murphy present News at Ten!

I'm old enough to remember when there was a cross over of ITV and C4 presenters between the two channel's news programmes.
Jon Snow who presented C4 News from 1989 (?) also presented ITV's ElectIon Night programme in 1992.

They also plugged C4 News at the end of ITV's 5:45 News, and NaT at the end of C4 News.

No surprise really

[JK1985]

Well considering Channel 4 News is made by ITN who make ITV news, it should have come as no surprise for news readers to be on both channels back then.

[Kunst]

Question... would it be impossible for a Channel 4 Company to stay afloat without being bought by some others?