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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.”

Gill said returning to TV is a "sensible move."

"What was odd was the BBC's move away from a channel. It is difficult to regain all the audience that the BBC once had, but they will make some inroads into attracting 16 to 34s again, and then the hope is that those viewers might move over to watch something on BBC1 or BBC2."