Sell off of Channel 4

I had seen this, but unfortunately don't understand it. Why is the channel being sold?

Pepper59

I had seen this, but unfortunately don't understand it. Why is the channel being sold?

Ideological reasons. Absolutely no other reason stands up. This was started by Thatcher.

They'll sell it off cheap to a Tory donor.
They just don't like things to belong to all of us.
It costs us nothing, so they havn't got that excuse.

I can't be angry any more this week. I'm worn out with it. And its only Tuesday. I'm off the clean the shower...

They reckon £1bn. That will go into another donors pocket supplying something else to the government

Labour were asked if they would renationalise it and were criticised for not answering the question.

To my mind if Labour get in next time, there will be a lot of much more critical things that the taxpayer has to spend their money on like the NHS, assisting those in absolute poverty, education, social care etc. everything that the Tories have trashed since 2010.

Channel 4 will be lost for good.

Purely Tory dogmatic
government reason - it must be left as it is for the sake of balanced reporting

It makes a profit so isn’t because it’s loosing money. Maybe they’ll sell it to a Russian.

Merseymog

Purely Tory dogmatic
government reason - it must be left as it is for the sake of balanced reporting

I gather that that is the precise reason why they want to sell it off. Ch4 is critical of the government and they wish to silence it.

Though it is a state broadcaster, initially financed by the state, it is entirely self supporting, being financed by advertising revenue. The government has no hold over it. It cannot threaten to withdraw its finance, as it can the BBC, because it doesn't finance it.

I am sure that it will take care to sell it to a buyer with tory sympathies who will follow the party line. It looks to me like a decidedly Putinesque move by a government which pays lip service to free speech but only if the free speech favours them and their policies.

I feel like volver. Too much anger and it's only Tuesday. I'm off to plant some lily bulbs.

I cannot see any reason to sell Channel 4 as it doesn't cost the taxpayer anything. The likely reason is that Channel 4 news can be more honest in its reporting of the government. I just despair when someone like Nadine Dorries, a complete culture vacuum is the one talking about it; she would be better chewing kangaroo arseholes. Like Volver, I am wrung out, and it is only Tuesday.

The only channel worth watching in this house. I suppose Saturday night Scandi dramas will be a thing of the past or on a subscription channel. I am becoming desperate, why does everything change? If it works it does not need fixing.

Mark Stacey
@VintiquesMark
·
11h
uk is finished if the likes of murdoch gets his hands on c4

It would be interesting to know if any Gnetters support this move.

Certainly no comments yet from the tory lovers...

Definitely because they don't like Channel News. As others have said that programme is very critical of the govt.

Nadine Dories didn’t even know it doesn’t receive any public money.

MaizieD maybe it’s because the so called tory lovers have busy lives…

This previous Conservative voter cannot see why it needs to be sold off as it is self funding.

I like GB News best ??

Channel 4 is so woke, divisive, anti- white and extreme left- wing I would imagine the Chinese CCP will be first in with a bid! A propaganda unit already in place.

They have their agenda. That’s fine. Horses for courses I suppose. I dip in occasionally to challenge my biases.

Mind you - remember Jon Snow’s Snow's racist "so many white people" comment? That was the final nail in the coffin.
A bunch of privileged English-hating Oxford graduates have finally got their comeuppance. Great news.

Oh dear me.

Look what's happened, you've poked the bear.

Monty Don
@TheMontyDon
·
2h
I worked for Channel Four at the end of the nineties and early noughties and we made superb gardening programmes I am very proud to have been part of. It should be treasured for what it is, not flogged off unnecessarily.

You know things are getting bad when I'm quoting Ruth Davidson:

Channel 4 is a cultural jewel and we shouldn't be flogging it off to some foreign corporation to take money out of the UK supply chain

Former Scottish Conservatives leader
@RuthDavidsonPC

Can anyone remember how a few months ago, that fool Dorries didn’t know how channel 4 was funded?

Now she apparently knows enough to decide it should be sold off..

God spare us from such ignorance and sheer stupidity.

No Urms, I am not biting.

Haha! ??
I have my reputation to uphold volver. You & others would be very disappointed in me if I didn’t stay true to form.

It’s what I think anyway. Different to nearly everybody on here I agree. But still.

So many artists speaking out against the sell off.

Alison Moyet
@AlisonMoyet
·
7h
Privatise #Channel4? Why? It’s not running at a loss.Why does it need to compete with Netflix? Not every building needs to be the tallest.Make no mistake.This is asset stripping. Billy Big Bollox getting the back catalogue.We need this outlet for our new unique burgeoning talents

Dara Ó Briain
@daraobriain
·
17h
It’s hard to measure the stupidity and short-termism here, or what the possible upside is other than to whoever will use it to make money for themselves. It will certainly make the UK poorer, culturally. Which is pretty amazing work by a “Culture Minister”.