Channel 4 Sale Plan Decried By UK TV Industry, Politicians And Public

deadline.com:

High-profile politicians and media figures have slammed the UK government’s decision to press ahead with privatizing It’s A Sin broadcaster Channel 4, as a petition to stop the process nears 35,000 signatures.Yesterday, it emerged Conservative government ministers were moving to sell the broadcaster, which is publicly-owned but funded commercially.

The hope is to raise around £1BN ($1.3BN) from a deal, with ITV, Discovery and Sky all linked.The government’s plan comes despite overwhelming opposition from the UK’s production industry, which is significantly aided by Channel 4’s business model of not owning the content it commissions.Several high profile creatives have now taken to social media to demand the process ends.The Thick of It and Veep creator Armando Iannucci criticized the government for ignoring results of a consultation into the sale, tweeting: “They asked for ‘a debate’; 90% of submissions in that debate said it was a bad idea.

But still they go ahead. Why do they want to make the UK’s great TV industry worse? Why? It makes no business, economic and even patriotic sense.”Matt Lucas, co-presenter of Channel 4’s biggest show The Great British Bake Off, was one of nearly 35,000 that have signed a petition demanding the privatization process stops.He tweeted: ”C4 is owned by the public, is self-funding and costs you NOTHING.

All profits are funnelled straight back into programming. Wrong decision by the government.”The government claims Channel 4 will become increasingly vulnerable to the streamers such as Netflix and Amazon if it is not transferred into private hands and that a new owner would be able to provide it with the capital to compete.However, Labour MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Digital,