New culture secretary “re-examining” privatisation of Channel 4
nme.comChannel 4.Earlier this year (April 4), previous culture secretary Nadine Dorries tweeted her intentions to privatise the broadcaster under the belief that government ownership is “holding Channel 4 back” from competing against streaming platforms.A Change.org petition was launched in response to stop the plans, which has received almost 500,000 signatures at the time of writing.Donelan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she was “making sure that we still agree with that decision” (per BBC News).“As the prime minister said, we do need to re-examine the business case and that’s certainly what I’m doing.
We’re looking especially at the business case for the sale of Channel 4 and we’re making sure that we still agree with that decision.”She added: “I’m the type of politician that bases their decisions on evidence, that bases their decisions on listening, and that’s what I’ll be doing over the coming weeks.”Donelan, who took over at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as part of new Prime Minister Liz Truss’ wave of cabinet announcements, said it was “no secret” that she had “been a sceptic for a long time of the [BBC] licence fee”.The culture secretary said that the BBC‘s “unique” coverage of the death and funeral of the Queen had reaffirmed the importance of making the corporation “sustainable”.“For me that means it’s even more important to make sure the BBC is sustainable in the long-term,” she said. “When you look at platforms like Amazon, like Netflix, it makes you question whether in the modern-age, when the media landscape is changing so remarkably, that it is sustainable.
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