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John Whittingdale: Government considering sale of Channel 4

The future of Channel 4 is under consideration after media minister, John Whittingdale revealed that the government was planning to private the terrestrial broadcaster.

Channel 4, which launched in 1982 was publicly owned and in 1990, it implemented a self-funding model whereby it used profit to reinvest into content.

Talking at a fringe event at the Conservative party conference, Whittingdale said, “There is a very important debate to be had about Channel 4 because, unlike the BBC, the channel survives without any taxpayer funding as an advertising-funded model.”

“With the advent of the streamers and other competing services, that model is under increasing strain and I’m not sure it is sustainable into the future.

“So we do need to think about Channel 4 and whether or not there is a need for a second publicly-owned public service broadcaster or what function it should fulfill. That’s something we’re giving a lot of thought to.”

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