Government cancels Channel 4 privatisation plans

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief

Published: January 4 2023 | 16:06

Last updated: January 4 2023 | 23:50

Government cancels Channel 4 privatisation plans

Culture secretary Michelle Donelan reveals that controversial plans to sell off Channel 4 have been scrapped.

Culture secretary Michelle Donelan has decided to shelve the government's plans to privatise Channel 4.

The highly-controversial proposals were put forward by Donelan's predecessor Nadine Dorries, who had argued that selling off the publicly-owned broadcaster would enable it to compete better with streamers such as Netflix and Disney+.

Despite a public consultation on the sale receiving almost unanimously negative feedback, Dorries pushed ahead anyway, but now Donelan has called it off entirely.

In a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, she wrote: "The view of my predecessor, and the Government of the time, was that selling C4C was the right solution to meet these challenges.

"However, after reviewing the business case, I have concluded that pursuing a sale at this point is not the right decision and there are better ways to secure C4C's sustainability and that of the UK independent production sector.

"Indeed, C4C's role in supporting growth in our independent production sector, a sector which is currently worth around £3 billion to our economy, would be very disrupted by a sale at a time when growth and economic stability are our priorities."

Donelan - in post since September 2022 - has instead proposed a new range of measures in a "sustainability package" to help safeguard C4's future.

Among the options to be considered is a "relaxation" of the rule which currently prevents Channel 4 from making programming in-house, as well as obligations to hire more staff outside of London and a potential scope to increase the broadcaster's £200m borrowing limit.