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.”

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."

Claire said “I don’t know what his expectations are, but I imagine that someone will tell him that he will have to restrain his desire to make public pronouncements."

“What he brings to the role is the political connection. He’s the opposite in every respect from Lord Burns and Dame Patricia Hodgson, who were his predecessors, because neither of them expressed their political views."

“Also neither of them had a specific agenda that they’d been pursuing for some time to diminish and change institutions such as the BBC or Channel Four, which have been established by Parliament and only Parliament can change,” she adds.

Tom sounds a note of caution. “Supercharging Doctor Who makes sense for BBC Studios, but less so for Sony,” he says. “Sony is the only studio without a direct-to-consumer streaming service, so greater value would have to be derived from sales. 

Is there a big international buyer that wants to license – and fund – the show? Perhaps, but if there is that sort of demand, why is the show generally only on smaller channels internationally, such as BBC America? That being said, maybe Sony will take a ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy to the show.”