U.K. Culture Secretary Slams ‘Overblown,’ ‘Inflammatory’ Reaction to Channel 4 Sale From ‘Leftie Lynch Mob’
variety.comNaman Ramachandran U.K. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has sharply criticized detractors of her plan to sell broadcaster Channel 4.
The plan was decried by several leading media industry unions and filmmakers. In a strongly worded column in The Mail on Sunday, Dorries wrote that the reaction to her plan was “as predictable as it was inflammatory.” “Let’s dump the lazy, overwrought and ill-informed rhetoric from the Leftie luvvie lynch mob and take a cool look at the facts,” Dorries wrote.
U.K. independent companies are flourishing and only 7% of the industry’s revenue comes from Channel 4, Dorries wrote. As a publisher-broadcaster, Channel 4 does not produce its own programs but commissions them from more than 300 independent production companies across the U.K.
every year. It is publicly owned and funded by advertising. Dorries wrote that because of the way Channel 4 is owned, it cannot build a back catalogue to export, or have an in-house studio to create and sell content, adding that advertising is increasingly migrating online.“Broadcasting is now a totally different and digital world.
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