Is this the end for Channel 4?

So farewell Channel 4? Boris Johnson seems determined to be the Prime Minister who finally cashes in this thorn in the crown of UK Public Service Broadcasting. Perhaps appropriately the TV station which once broadcast “Wank Week” could bring in around a billion pounds for him to “spaff away” – to use a Johnsonism – on something his government considers more worthwhile.

There is no doubt that the TV industry and many who work in it are under threat. Digital technology and smartphones mean the broadcasters no longer have a monopoly on the provision of video content to homes. Audiences are fragmenting and commercial revenues are draining away to online. But does that mean that Channel 4 (C4) is broken and needs fixing for good? I’m far from convinced.

My career in television has run in parallel with Channel 4, which is due to celebrate its fortieth birthday on 2 November next year. I’ve never worked for C4 but for two other companies, TV-am and Sky, which, like C4, came into being in the 1980s and broke the cosy duopoly of BBC and ITV, offering innovative new types of programming.

Some TV insiders say a sell-off would be “spiteful”. It is opposed by Alice Mahon, its feisty chief executive, who told MPs this week her channel would lose its identity if consolidated into a media giant. But privatisation has long been an ambition of John Whittingdale, the Thatcherite number two at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) – somewhat ironically since it was Mrs Thatcher’s government which established C4 in 1980, on its present basis. Whittingdale’s boss, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, claims somewhat unconvincingly that being bought would both enable C4 to compete with the likes of Disney and Netflix and “ensure its place at the heart of British Broadcasting”. 

There is no love lost between C4 and ministers. Dorothy Byrne, then the Channels head of news and current affairs attacked Johnson as a “known liar” at the Edinburgh Television Festival and when a debate on climate change fell victim to Johnson’s strategy of not turning up for appearances during the last General Election campaign, he was replaced by a melting ice sculpture. Since then, the channel has gone through many seasons of drought with cabinet ministers declining to appear on its programmes. In his attempt to purge potential critics from public bodies the Culture Secretary recently vetoed the appointment of two board directors, who had already been vetted and approved by Ofcom.

Given Dowden’s fondness for stoking culture wars, the public opposition by leading lights of the liberal elite, including Sir David Attenborough and Armando Iannucci, is only likely to make him keener on privatisation. 

Channel 4 is owned by the public but, unlike the BBC, receives no financial support from the Treasury, though it has in the past asked for it unsuccessfully. It is dependent on the adverts it carries in commercial breaks for revenue. Its availability for sale now makes it a model of its own modest commercial success. The channel cutback during the pandemic and its revenues were only down 5 per cent last year, while both its broadcasting and streaming audiences grew. In 2020, a record turnover of a billion pounds generated a surplus of £74m, which by law has to be mostly invested back in programming. 

When Channel 4 was launched, the rival ITV funded it in return for selling the adverts. ITV bosses complained about that. Channel 4 took over its own advertising and started making a profit. ITV bosses complained about that too. 

In stark contrast to the instincts of the present Conservative regime, the Thatcher Government set up C4 deliberately to showcase alternative voices. Its remit was for “high quality and diverse programming which, in particular: demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity” and “appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society”. A cynical friend paraphrased this as making programmes for the “Tony Benn ten per cent” and he wasn’t far wrong. Today Channel 4 accounts for about 10 per cent of UK TV viewing. Alice Mahon says 80 per cent of all 16-to-34-year-olds are signed up to its All4 app. 

Over the decades it has introduced Britons to new types of programmes – not all of it as racy as Big Brother, Gogglebox, Embarrassing Bodies or Naked Attraction, which permits viewers to indulge their curiosity about what other people’s private parts look like. The first show on the channel was Countdown, still running after all these years. Brookside has morphed into the more youth-friendly Hollyoaks. Unlike its terrestrial competitors, C4 continues to screen foreign content on both its main channel and streaming services – perhaps because it commissions and buys in programmes rather than making them itself. If you didn’t have satellite you first saw The Simpsons and Friends on Channel 4. Its poaching of The Great British Bake-Off from the BBC ruffled feathers although the re-vamped show maintains its free-to-air popularity. 

Channel 4 took up LGBT issues before they were called that back in the days of Section 28, and has broadcast numerous series by Russell T Davies, most recently It’s A Sin. Its unbuttoned approach to late-night chat shows at the end of the last century led to two memorable drunken appearances: by the actor, Oliver Reed, supposedly discussing male violence on After Dark and a sweary walk-out on Is Painting Dead? which first introduced Tracy Emin to the wider public. 

Most workaday politicians really only care about the news – because it may be about them. Channel 4 News has always been produced by ITV/ITN though it has evolved a lot over the years. At the launch, Channel 4 News was a calculatedly high minded product co-presented by a trio of heavyweights – Trevor MacDonald, Godfrey Hodgson and, bizarrely, the Tory grandee Sarah Hogg. That didn’t last long. Stewart Purvis, then best known for circling the nipples on footage of Diana in a low cut dress, was brought in as editor. The late Peter Sissons was installed as an authoritative anchor. Jon Snow has been the presenter since 1989. Now aged 74, he will join the continuing cull of established white male baby boomers underway in television when he leaves at the end of this year. But that won’t be enough to appease the government who have always regarded Jon as “a lefty”. Margaret Thatcher used to relish sparring with him, but times and personalities have changed. 

Channel 4 is getting by as things stand now. Its licence will expire in 2024. To sweeten the sell-off Oliver Dowden is likely to offer an indefinite extension and he will want to change the remit to allow Channel 4 to become more compatible with his outlook. The government has said it is open to foreign ownership and it seems likely that only an American media titan would have the desire and the wherewith all to buy Channel 4. It is possible to survive as part of a conglomerate. Channel 5 programmes have improved since its take-over by Viacom and the appointment of Maria Kyriacou as its boss. But Channel 4, for now, has its unique remit and an edgier independent stance likely to rub up against any owner. 

So, in these tough times for TV, farewell Channel 4? We could survive without it but we’d miss what we had lost.