The government has pushed the privatization process forward with a controversial move wave despite the broadcaster’s call to keep it in the public domain.
The government will reportedly sell the channel for at least 1 billion, the most extensive privatization in nine years since Royal Mail became privatized.
The move risks a wave that some see as a pillar of British culture falling into the hands of streaming platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.
The new leading media bill, due to be debated in the Queen next month, will allow ministers to sell the channel before the next election.
This happened after several clashes between the Tories “Channel 4” before the 2019 elections.
That same year, Dorothy Byrne, the head of Channel 4, called Boris Johnson a “famous liar” and compared him to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a talk show at a T.V. festival.
Similarly, former Channel 4 host John Snow was filmed shouting “f *** the Toris” in 2017 in Glastonbury.
A government source told the BBC. “The ministers have decided that while Channel 4 is doing well as a business, it is holding back government ownership amid a rapidly changing competitive media landscape.
“The fourth channel is a great business, around which a strong brand has been created, being creative, innovative, and different, but the change of owner will remove his straitjacket, which will allow the fourth channel to innovate and develop so that it can flourish and prosper in the future.” ել Support the U.K.’s creative industry. “
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They added that there should be a “long legislative process – political debate.” Channel 4 remains legally committed to its unique public service mission. Both our viewers and the British creative economy across the U.K.”
Lucy Powell, the Labor Party’s shadow culture secretary, criticized the decision: “The fourth channel, which will not cost the taxpayer a penny, what is most likely a foreign company, is absolutely meaningless. It will cost jobs. “Opportunities in North Yorkshire hit the wider British creative economy.”
Channel 4 was founded in 1982 during the reign of Margaret Thatcher and was created to serve a poor audience and to act as a disruptor to the BBC and ITV.
A female White House employee took a dramatic tumble down the steep grades of a government rush during President Joe Biden’s trip to Poland.
The moment, filmed and broadcast on a Polish T.V. station, shows a person struggling down the steps on Tuesday dawn. And at one point, they skate the rest of the way down.
The female staffer, who was not identified, was wearing a backpack that cushioned her fall.
The clip, part of footage posted on a Polish television network, has been viewed almost half a million times.
Biden, 80, is in Poland to provide a lecture, which he did Tuesday morning, and meet with foreign dignitaries when the country requests a more fabulous U.S. troop company on its part.
In the past, it’s been POTUS himself who has needed some help on the steep steps that guide to government jets. In late 2021, Biden fell three moments as he tried to board Air Force One before a trip to Atlanta.
The country’s oldest president could still deliver a greeting from the top of the plane’s stairs before leaving.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre endeavored to cover for the Commander-in-Chief then, saying: ‘It was very windy, and I almost fell coming up the steps myself.’
‘He is doing 100 percent. He’s accomplishing just fine,’ she added of Biden’s background in the aftermath of the trip up.
The president’s knowledge to elegantly tackle the steps of the presidential aircraft has been continued ammunition for those who question the senior president’s mental and physical fitness for office.
It said a sale, possibly to a U.S. media giant, would help the broadcaster thrive against newer competitors like Netflix and Amazon.
The broadcaster’s management, lawmakers across parliament, and television grandees strongly opposed the move, saying it would jeopardize Channel 4’s distinctive programming.
Channel 4 was created by Conservative former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s to deliver an edgy alternative to the BBC and ITV, focusing on under-served audiences.
Britain’s new culture minister, Michelle Donelan, said on Tuesday she was re-examining the case for selling Channel 4, raising the possibility that a plan to privatize the publicly-owned broadcaster could be scrapped.
“We are looking especially at the business case for the sale of Channel 4 and making sure that we still agree with that decision,” she told BBC radio.
