The government wants to privatise Channel 4 – 27 comebacks worth tuning in for
The government has announced it is pressing ahead with controversial plans to privatise Channel 4, despite pretty much everyone who knows anything about broadcasting telling them it’s a stupid idea.
Unfortunately for Channel 4 and everyone else, there isn’t anyone in government who knows anything about broadcasting. They’ve got culture secretary Nadine Dorries instead.
Channel 4 rightly holds a cherished place in British life and I want that to remain the case. I have come to the conclusion that government ownership is holding Channel 4 back from competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon. 1/3
— Rt Hon Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) April 4, 2022
A change of ownership will give Channel 4 the tools and freedom to flourish and thrive as a public service broadcaster long into the future. I will set out the future plan for Channel 4 in a White Paper in due course. 2/3
— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) April 4, 2022
I will seek to reinvest the proceeds of the sale into levelling up the creative sector, putting money into independent production and creative skills in priority parts of the country – delivering a creative dividend for all. 3/3
— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) April 4, 2022
The news prompted no end of concern and outrage on Twitter, and these 27 totally switched-on responses surely say it best.
1.
What a pile of absolute horseshit. You don’t understand a single thing about broadcasting. All you’re doing is destroying UK creative industries because you don’t like awkward questions from a news outlet that holds you to account. Disgraceful.
— Emma Kennedy💙 (@EmmaKennedy) April 4, 2022
2.
They know the price of everything, and the value of nothing. Channel 4 is a fantastic broadcast that’s unique finding under public ownership is another of the great things about broadcasting in the UK the tories want to ruin.
— Ian Morris (@IanMorris78) April 4, 2022
3.
It’s been five months since you first learned how the fuck it was funded live on TV https://t.co/a33qlsp3X8
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) April 5, 2022
4.
Channel 4 does not cost the public any money. It’s profitable. It supports an independent TV production industry across the UK. It nurtures new talent. It invests in investigative & foreign journalism like no other. C4 is an asset to the UK. There is no good reason to privatise.
— Katie Arnold (@Kate_Arno) April 4, 2022
5.
Cannot believe the guys who’ve closed 800 libraries since 2010 would do this to Channel 4.
— Neil Gibbons (@neilgibbons) April 4, 2022
6.
Every channel turned down It’s A Sin. Every channel except Channel 4. A privatised Channel 4 would also have turned it down. It costs the taxpayer nothing and yet is owned by the public.
— ΞÐШΛЯÐ (@edwardrussell) April 4, 2022
7.
I used think politics was more nuanced, but these days, when the government announce they're selling Channel 4, you just think, "Which one of their rich mates has said they want to buy it?" Is this their only idea? Selling all our stuff?
— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) April 4, 2022
8.
Channel 4 is a brilliantly British idea. The people’s channel, duty bound to make programmes others won’t, bat for the underdog and fear nobody. And it costs us nothing.
Yet the government are selling it off. They say they love Britain, and then tear the best bits of it apart.
— Darryl Morris 🇺🇦 (@darrylmorris) April 4, 2022
9.
From Brexit to Channel 4, all they can do is break things & sell the temporary unhappiness & anger of people who care about & understand their importance to their permanently miserable & furious base.
— James O'Brien (@mrjamesob) April 5, 2022
10.
Poor old Channel Four. Not broke, doesn’t need fixing, zero public demand for change & Strong opposition in industry & Parliament but still about to get flogged off for no discernible reason
— gabyhinsliff (@gabyhinsliff) April 4, 2022
11.
Our Culture Secretary is a culture vandal who wants to shut down dissenting voices and has written terrible, lobotomising books.
— Rosie Holt (@RosieisaHolt) April 5, 2022
12.
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 or even patriotic sense. https://t.co/aokG0yZPlm
— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) April 4, 2022
13.
I'm going to buy Channel 4 to protect 'Countdown'.
— Richard Osman (@richardosman) April 5, 2022