It almost looks as if neither Oliver Dowden nor John Whittingdale can read a balance sheet. The latest Channel 4 Annual Report, spookily held up somewhere in Government until yesterday, preceded, by a matter of hours, the latest Government move to consider privatisation.
Channel 4 hasn't and doesn't require 'public money', but, in the judgement of these two culture warriors cannot survive in the new media landscape without serious 'investment capital', only available via an 'alternate ownership model'. In 2020, Channel 4 turned in a profit in the pandemic by spending less on content.
Top formats don't have to be expensive. Gogglebox, Jamie Oliver's Keeping Cooking and Carry On, Grayson's Art Club together cost less than an episode of The Crown. Smart investment saw Film 4 supporting double-Oscar winner The Father, and the excellent re-take of David Copperfield.
This, in reality, is part Government fundraiser, and part punishment. The trouble is that, to back the received Tory view that C4 is a wing of the Labour Party, they need some Ofcom judgements they don't have, or a successful court case against the allegation that Boris Johnson is a 'known liar'.
The findings of the latest Reuters Institute annual report on news consumption will probably distress Dowden and Whittingdale even more. It shows weekly reach of Channel 4 at 11%, ahead of the Daily Mail at 7%. In a survey of 15 UK news sources, Channel 4 News scored 58% for 'trusted', compared with 43% for The Telegraph and 26% for the Mail.
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