This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Not 4 Sale
July 28, 2021
From the launch week sheer brilliance of Brookside and The Tube, through the pure joy of Gogglebox and bang up to now with It’s a Sin and This Way Up, Channel 4 has arguably been one of the most significant players in shaping the modern cultural landscape of the UK.
For four decades it has championed otherwise unheard voices and tackled outlier topics, leading political and artistic debates and setting the agenda for the national conversation; from that first on-screen lesbian kiss to unifying the country into the first real celebration of the Paralympics.
Where Channel 4 has led, others followed. If there was ever a creative envelope to be pushed, you could be sure that Channel 4 would be pushing it. Its remit has always been to commission distinct programming and deliver to diverse and underserved audiences. It both nurtures and showcases brilliant talent.
But Channel 4 is now at risk, with the government investigating its sale.
From my perspective, the rationale is unclear. Owned by the state, but editorially independent, Channel 4 costs the taxpayer nothing, earning its revenue through advertising and sponsorship and channelling revenues back into programmes made by independent production companies.
It remains the only broadcaster that commissions all its programmes and it has given a platform and voice to creative people from all walks of life and regions – and without the need of the huge heft of a super indie or multinational behind it.
As the broadcast and streaming market continues to fragment and the likes of Amazon, Netflix or Disney can afford to cough up £15million-an-hour production costs for dramas, we need the likes of Channel 4 to exist to champion the creatives who deliver global hits through sheer talent not budgets.
Since Channel 4 launched, we’ve seen a homogenisation of so many aspects of our lives; from identikit High Streets to music, food, fashion and more.
Channel 4 remains a purveyor of global hits with a unique Britishness of which we can all be proud.
In among the malevolent maelstrom of fake news and copycat programme formats, Channel 4 remains a beacon of creativity and independence and one that should be protected at all costs.
Maureen Corish