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Claire said "You have to consider that people don't watch high-end dramas end-to-end all the time, what they do is they watch a whole range of different programming. Channel 4 is obliged to offer news, current affairs, documentaries, all kinds of programmes which are made with a very distinctive British voice."

"Some of them are very low budget, so although the visible signs of competition tend to be whether you've got an amazing new franchise based on Lord Of The Rings to land, actually the bread and butter of TV and TV advertising is made of daytime shows, of late nights, of all kinds of programmes that people like to plonk into...

"Channel 4 really is a very cutting edge broadcaster with a very strong base in young viewers, which is extremely attractive to advertisers. Advertising is not a feature of Netflix, it's not a feature of Disney+. It's not actually in direct competition with anyone. It is in fact a free-to-air broadcaster, universally available."

Claire said Mr Lynton was considered a future director-general of the BBC and a big supporter of public service broadcasting. 

"I would see him as a defender of Channel 4's remit, a defender of independence of Channel 4 and someone who would bring gravitas and a lot of corporate governance experience."

Claire Enders, founder of media research firm Enders Analysis, said Channel 4 might end up being better off owned by a company that “wishes it all the best” rather than “a government that does not want it”.

She warned, however, that the process of preparing the necessary legislation was likely to be long and could stretch beyond the next election, adding that another government might have a different attitude towards Channel 4 and privatisation.

The channel could fetch between 750 million pounds ($984 million) and 1.2 billion pounds, said Claire Enders, founder of Enders Analysis, depending on which elements of its current responsibilities are preserved. It could take years of lawmaker wrangling and “is not going to be for the faint-hearted."

Abi said “It’s quite a big psychological barrier for consumers. No one wants to be the first mover.”

Tom said "LBC has been quite slow to digitise and move on to online platforms. What they’ve been really good at is seeing this move towards more opinionated news. The demand there is for lively debate."

Douglas said “One of the knock-on effects of such an extraordinary news run is that it has given confidence back to the news industry that it has a role, a purpose and a community of people prepared to value it. Every conversation used to be about the battle with Google, but now heads are up. For the first time executives can see, imagine, and picture an online future.”