Channel 4 has released a statement in response to the UK government’s decision to drop its plans to privatise the commercial public service broadcaster. The statement reads: We welcome the Government’s decision that Channel 4 will remain in public ownership. This decision provides a firm basis on which to establish the sustainable direction of Channel […]

Members of Pact, the UK screen sector trade body representing and supporting independent production and distribution companies, have sent an open letter to the Conservative Leadership candidates, calling on them to reconsider the Government’s plans to privatise Channel 4. The letter to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak has been signed by over 750 Pact members representing […]

The Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU) has written to the UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Nadine Dorries, to urge her to reconsider the Government’s plans to privatise Channel 4. The FEU, who together represent over 120,000 UK creative workers, is dismayed at the Government’s plans to sell the publicly owned […]

Critics from within the UK TV industry have described the UK government’s plans to proceed with the privatisation of Channel 4 as ill-informed, ideological rather than logical (fuelled by the current government’s dislike of Channel 4’s robustly independent news coverage), and as “a solution in search of a problem”, But if it does go ahead, […]

It has emerged that the UK government intends to proceed with the privatisation of publicly-owned commercial PSB Channel 4, having suggested in May 2021 that such a move was “on the table”. The news comes as Sir Ian Cheshire has been named as incoming Chair of the broadcaster. With the UK parliament in recess for […]