Channel 4 is publicly owned and all of itās funding comes from advertising. Run under licensing that say it should provide high quality programs, cater for minorities and educate.
So if itās sold the new owners will expect a return for their money. So they will take some of the income from advertising to line their pockets so less to spend on quality programming.
To maximise profits they will need to increase viewing figures. There goes any programs for minorities.
Chances are that it will go the way of many other channels. Wall to wall dross that appeals to the knuckle dragging end of the market.
At the risk of being accused of āpoliticsā, Iāll get that bit over with now, and say no more in that direction from there on. I have little time for the current flavour of Westminster government, and view the current Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as some kind of sick joke.
For me, CH4 does have its share of dross ( Naked Attraction ). However, over the years Iāve watched lots of really good films that have been commisioned, financed, or co-financed by Ch4. In terms of TV comedy, two of my favourites have been the Fresh Meat and also The Inbetweeners series. I donāt think either of these would have been commissioned by any other media outlet.
I have every respect for Ch4 News. They havenāt been neutered in the same way that the BBC has, and persistently ask the awkward questions that need to be asked, but others wonāt.
I see little rationale for privatising Ch4, other than political ideology.
Itās the diverse and minority aims of Channel 4 that gives us Naked Attraction at one end of the scale and Channel 4 News, Guy Martin and free to air F1 at the other.
Privatisation will likely give us more of the former and less of the latter.
For the price of edited highlights of one Grand Prix you could probably get 100 people who will strip stark naked on TV.
Our Freeview+ box has multiple programs set to series record. Mainly BBC and Channel 4. Not many ITV.
More dross on ITV than Channel 4 and much less of interest to us personally.
Itās a dummy run for the governmentās plan to destroy the BBC. Donāt like being caught out all the time, despite the fact that the BBC is the envy of many countries around the world. Have travelled and spoken to many on my travels publicly run broadcasters are a rare breed and like all endangered species need to be protected.
thank you all for helping me to understand the anti-sale position.
i still dont care either way.
but thats propably because its my very considered opinion that the current state of tv broadcasting is bad for your health both phyically and mentally!
infact i think a smart legal person could actually make a case that the current state of tv broadcasting amounts to a crime against humanity
and i strongly advocate that people get rid of their Tvās.
i strongly beleive that the world would be a better place if people did stop watching tv.
dont get me wrong! not all TV is bad, just most of it.
the exceptions being,
documentries and educational prgramms,
Itās multi-channel TV that has meant that the good content is so spread around. Now we have streaming too.
As Bruce Springsteen said ā57 channels and nothinā onā.
If you want to have access to everything available then itās license fee, an expensive Sky subscription, add on BT sport and then Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu and Britbox on top. Probably more that Iāve missed too.
Personally the only TV paid for in our household is the license fee. We do watch some content not available on Freeview and that comes fromā¦ Well Iād better not say any more.
However we very rarely watch live TV. Set the box to series record and watch at our convenience and skip through the ads.
Seems like a deliberate distraction from all the other things our Government are getting flak for at the moment (cost of living, brexit trade issues, partygate, etc.).
In my opinion it would be a shame, C4ās funding model of not keeping the intellectual property rights to the content it commissions has done so much for UK media over the last few decades. Would be a tragedy if it gets sold to a big media conglomerate.
I couldnāt agree with that at all. I think most TV has at least got editors and someone gauging the content. That cannot at all be said for Social Media, TicTok, and every other content channel out there.
Far from being nothing on, as was always what was the cry, there is some very, very good TV out there and very well worth viewing, and to be fair C4 contributes a good amount. I watched something a few weeks back, which may well have been C4 about a train journey from Sydney into the interior of the country and it was just enchanting.
Ahhh, but I have just watched the 90th and last episode of āVikingsā!
Takes one away from the worlds problems, (when not in the 5 of course) and obviously I couldnāt have watched it without a TV.
Moto GP.
British Superbikes.
World Superbikes.
F1 Highlights, (to watch any good racing).
Skiing.
Oh and Peaky Blinders!!
To name but a few.
All the best.
yes! films, well actually storytelling (films and mini series) is one of my exceptions and tbh i wouldnt consider them as broadcasting!
film 4 was/is a good channel and pretty much the only channel that ever shows films from around the world.
the quite often show the studio Ghibli films (japanese disney) which are fantastic and enchanting.
princess mononoko, spirited away. porco rosso, kikiās delivery service, my neighbour totoro, howlās moving castle and of course laputa: castle in the sky! just to name the greats!
also sports is an exception tho i personally prefer to take part or spectate in person rather than watch on tv!
No the mindnumbing dross that i hate is soaps, game shows, fad shows (like all the housing programmes) and brain dead comedys that get their laughs by putting sections of society down (usually working class council estate people) and then we come to the so called NEWS!
the NEWS that has spend the last 20 years lieing and fearmongering and beating the drum for war!
from the lies about russiagate (which has finnaly been debunked turns out it was actually hilary who was colluding with the russians) through the fear mongering of covid to beating the drums to get the public to accept war with russia!
the main stream news channels are utter garbage!
and do even get me started on shows like jeremy kyle or jerry springer!
Not one ā ā ā ā about C4 being privatised is given by me personally. If they lose the F1, well, too bad.
Weāve actually just given up the BBC license tax too and donāt miss it one bit. We get any tv weāre interested in on catch-up, Netflix, Disney+.