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Non-exec director criticises plans to privatise Channel 4
The non-executive director of a production company who has made several shows for Channel 4 has criticised government plans to privatise the broadcaster as a “fight that doesn’t need to happen”.
Marvin Rees, who is also the mayor of Bristol where Channel 4 opened a creative hub in Finzels Reach two years ago, told a council meeting that the move to sell off the network not wanted and would divert focus from addressing the cost-of-living crisis and recovery from the pandemic.
A proposed privatisation of Channel 4, which has been publicly owned but funded by advertising since it was founded by Margaret Thatcher in 1982, was confirmed in the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday setting out Parliament’s legislative agenda.
is needed now More than ever
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries has said public ownership is holding back the organisation from “competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon”, but the plans have sparked a huge protest campaign, with nearly 450,000 people now having signed a petition against them.
Hours after the speech in Westminster, Rees told Bristol City Council’s cabinet that while he welcomed some parts of it, such as the renters reform bill which is aimed at improving conditions and rights for millions in the private and socially rented sector, much of it missed the mark.
He said: “It doesn’t feel like it’s itching where we are all scratching. Our priority at the moment is that there is a cost-of-living crisis and yet we’re going to expend precious time on a policing bill and, not least of which concerns us, the Channel 4 bill, the privatisation of Channel 4.
“That is a fight that doesn’t need to happen. It’s going to take up legal time and officer time and it’s not something that’s being asked for by us as one of the new hubs of Channel 4 and it’s not being asked for by our independent production companies who Channel 4 is there to help propel along through their commissioning and who is a major employer in the city and with whom we are working to make so much more inclusive.
“It isn’t really helping us tackle the challenges we face on a day-to-day basis around those underlying drivers of inequality that are hitting us right now, namely coming through Covid-19, how the poorest and most marginalised have been hit first and hardest and are least best placed to benefit from any upturn when it comes.
“So we recognise the renters reform bill, there is potential in that, but we have concerns about the extent to which declarations in Westminster actually are informed and understood and then are applied in a way that is useful to city leaders around the UK.”
Main photo: Channel 4
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