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Claire said “No one in their right mind would attempt this… It’s a gigantic force in France.” If privatized, Enders suggests billionaire businessman and media titan Vincent Bolloré would be the beneficiary.
The government has always “welched on their commitment to France Télévisions… France Télévisions has always been absolutely 100% achieving and exceeding its regulatory envelope and the government has systematically for 15 years been doing the opposite.”
Niamh said “The larger platforms like Meta are scrambling to catch up with the TikTok offering. Products like Facebook Reels are a real copycat product."
Calling TikTok “the platform of the moment”, she explained the real challenge for social media players is being able to monetise on this redirected ad spend on this notoriously difficult short-form video form.
Abi said “[Future] is essentially the poster child in the magazine media sector for . . . managing to grow in the context of a declining and struggling industry."
Jamie said “Some young people have switched off Facebook entirely. In the UK, 18-to-24s spend as much on TikTok as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp combined. There is rampant competition for time. TikTok is the one growing fastest right now, and has scale, it’s the one to watch.”
Tom said “The unprecedented thing about Channel 4 was that it basically took, and still takes, money from advertisers and funnels it directly to independent production companies that Channel 4 doesn’t own. It also had risk-taking and diversity of opinion written into its remit."
“The problem is, what makes Channel 4 special is not economically defensible. If you asked any media company if they’d commission It’s a Sin, they’d say yes because it was a huge hit. The point of Channel 4 is all the risk-taking shows that no one watched. If you see what the people who made those shows did next, that’s where the value is. It’s about the failures that went on to create success.”
Claire said “Everyone will want to look under the bonnet of this miracle company and understand why it produces so many prizes."
Looking beyond the U.K. and U.S. Claire suggested certain European powerhouses such as Vivendi, which controls one third of key Channel 4 supplier Banijay, and RTL parent Bertelsmann, which owned Channel 5 between 2005 and 2011.
“The outcome will drive the net result and identity of Channel 4’s suitors,” added Enders, who predicted UK producer trade body Pact will “fight this every inch of the way” on behalf of its members.
The Government intends to privatise Channel 4 through its forthcoming Media Bill.
Given the uncertainty of the investment in Channel 4 and the limited upside from advertising, the only likely buyers are other broadcasters.
There are potential costs to the UK if the unique programming output of Channel 4 is lost and in the reduced funding of the independent production sector.
