Gill Hind, director of TV at Enders Analysis, has told TVBEurope she expects the government’s plan to sell off Channel 4 to move to the backburner following Boris Johnson’s resignation as UK prime minister.

She adds that the idea of privatising the broadcaster doesn’t have wider support among MPs, while over 96 per cent of the 55,737 organisations and individuals who responded to the government’s consultation on the future of Channel 4 said they did not support the privatisation of the broadcaster. 

Hind says she doesn’t think privatisation will be a priority for either the new prime minister or culture secretary. “That’s not to say it won’t rear its head, because during Channel 4’s almost 40 years on air it’s always does periodically.”

Douglas said “The problem is that some investors think that content businesses are now tech businesses. So they want to see the scale of a tech business too. Journalism businesses don’t “scale” like tech platforms: they are fundamentally ‘people businesses’"

“But other streaming giants could come, which should fuel the competition,” predicts François Godard, analyst at Enders. Apple has already acquired Major League Soccer games and some baseball games. Netflix would have applied for Formula 1 in the United States, in particular. After the war of the billions in fiction, the clash of the titans in sport?

Alice said "The transaction is a package of all rights: recording rights - which has the most value -, composition, synchronization [allowing the use of music for films, advertisements..., Editor's note]), which makes it even more attractive. Spotify-like platforms have given new impetus to the music of 'old' bands. Everyone was able to rediscover them, which we would not have imagined in the physical world of CDs and vinyls."

James said “A lot of these business models were created on the assumption that if there was an altnet there, Openreach would not overbuild them.That has turned out to be wrong.”

Tom said “It’s a difficult sell and poorly timed.The streaming market is plateauing and they don’t have a ready-made franchise to spin out like Disney had with Star Wars.”

“Households currently have an average of 2.6 pay subscription services. Most people have Netflix and then Amazon. It’s difficult to squeeze out one of those two, with household finances under pressure.”

Beyond enjoying a nice business lunch, I’ve never thought that bankers and media folk shared much in common. That is, until I read a quote from Claire Enders saying that “you can’t find a banker in the City that hasn’t wasted time on a Channel 4 privatisation”. And she’s right.

James said “If you look at companies’ stated plans — even dismissing some of them as speculative — you get to a market that doesn’t make any sense in terms of the degree of overlap."