Chief exec Lucinda Hicks says sale would threaten jobs and investment

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Banijay UK has backed Broadcast’s Not 4 Sale campaign against the privatisation of Channel 4, as support from Argonon, Lime Pictures, Multistory, Sister and The Garden takes the number of signatories to 160.

Banijay UK chief exec Lucinda Hicks, who is responsible for almost 30 labels, has also added her name to the campaign and hailed the role C4 plays.

Lucinda Hicks: ’We have seen no evidence that alternative ownership would invest more in our sector’

“As an independent producer that makes content across and beyond the UK, we experience first-hand the unique and key role C4 plays in the UK creative economy,” she told Broadcast.

“The channel’s drive to invest in talent, emerging companies and new ideas and voices, which others simply wouldn’t, benefits the whole sector.”

She added that a change to C4’s remit would “threaten jobs, creative innovation and investment, and the creative ecosystem,” urging the government to “proceed with caution” with the sector reeling from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have seen no evidence that alternative ownership would invest more in our sector.”

Hicks joins the bosses of several Banijay labels to have previously signed including Dragonfly, Initial, IWC Media and RDF Television.

Elsewhere, chief exec of super-indie Argonon, James Burstall, has boarded the campaign, alongside the first ITV Studios labels – The Garden’s John Hay and Nicola Hill and Tim Carter, who runs Multistory and Twofour.

Other indies to add their voices to the chorus of disapproval over the plans include Chernobyl producer Sister and renowned factual producer Lightbox (Searching for Sugarman).

Not For Sale: signatories
Jonathan Braman A Squared Films 
Paul Abbott & Martin Carr   AbbottVision
Lynda Cope  Accolade Films 
Dobs Vye Adage Music 
Matt Richards, Ian Cundall & Andy Joynson Air TV
Ian Lamarra Alaska TV
Kate Sinclair Alchemy Entertainment 
Ed Stobart Alleycats
James Burstall Argonon 
John Smithson Arrow Pictures
Daniel Nettleton Bandicoot TV 
Tom Hollander & Hannah Pescod Bandstand Productions
Lucinda Hicks Banijay UK
Paul Yule Berwick Universal Pictures
Damon Pattison Beyond Productions
Victor Schonfeld FRSA     Beyond the Frame 
Dhanny Joshi Big Deal Films
Jane Kelly & Philip McGovern Big Mountain Productions
Ed Coulthard Blast! Films
Alexandra Blue Bluebird Productions
Richard Bowron Bone Soup Productions 
Afua Hirsch Born In Me Productions
Charles Brand   Brandish Productions
Mandy Leith Brian Leith Productions
Nick Godwin & Tom Porter  Britespark Films
Foz Allan Bryncoed
Simon Platz Bucks Music Group 
Rebecca Papworth  CanCan Productions
Pat Younge Cardiff Productions
Mike Benson Chalkboard & Clapperboard Studios
Sioned Morys Chwarel 
Danielle Lux CPL Productions
Elaine Hackett Crackit Productions
Pippa Cross CrossDay Productions
Dixie Linder  Cuba Pictures 
Dov Freedman Curious Films 
Jonathan Schütz Curly Lizard Films
Paul Stead Daisybeck Studios
Dermot Lavery DoubleBand Films 
Richard Bond  Dragonfly
Rachel Drummond-Hay & Tamsin Summers Drummer TV
Emma Cooper Empress Films
Tim Hincks Expectation
Mark Williams Fin London Limited
Jes Wilkins Firecracker Films
Nicole Kleeman Firecrest Films
Nick Underhill & Colleen Flynn  Flicker Productions 
Jez Lee Forest
Monika Kasprzak  Friction Burn Pictures 
Jane Berthoud Funnybones Productions 
Faraz Osman Gold Wala
Ray Tostevin Grace Productions 
Jimmy Mulville Hat Trick Television / Hat Trick Mercurio 
Christian Baute Headline Pictures
Steve Regan Hello Mary
Johnny Webb HiddenLight Productions
Annabel Bates  Honeybee Films 
Jayne  Chard Hummingbird Films 
Dan Baldwin Hungry Bear Media
Kate Cook & Bruce Goodison Indefinite Films
Lyndsey Posner Independent Talent Group 
Victoria Powell Indielab 
Diarmid Scrimshaw  Inflammable Films 
Cat Lynch Initial TV
Matt McGough Ithica Films
Mark Downie IWC Media
Nick Parnes  Kalel Productions
Sohail Shah King of Sunshine Productions 
Nick Emmerson Koska 
Blair Krempel & Mark Wood Krempelwood 
Ollie Tait Lambent Productions
Andy Harries Left Bank Pictures
Simon Chinn Lightbox
Kate Little and Claire Poyser  Lime Pictures
Nick Catliff, Richard Bradley & Emma Morgan Lion TV
Ben Gale  Little Gem 
Catherine Bray, Anthony Ing & Charlie Shackleton Loop
Richard McKerrow Love Productions
Camilla Deakin & Ruth Fielding  Lupus Films
Luti Fagbenle Luti Media
Tally Garner Mam Tor Productions
Justin Gorman Man Alive Entertainment
Nick Curwin Matisse
Krishnendu Majumdar Me+You Productions 
Chris Brogden Mentorn
Clelia Mountford & Sharon Horgan  Merman 
David Sumnall Middlechild Productions
Louis Theroux, Nancy Strang, Arron Fellows, Sophie Ardern Mindhouse Productions
Morgan Matthews  Minnow 
Tim Carter Multistory Media & Twofour
Will Wood Multitude Media 
Dr Jon Wardle National Film and Television School
Cat Lewis Nine Lives Media
Neil Duncanson North One Television
Tina Flintoff & Nick Hornby  Optomen
Laura Mansfield Outline Productions
Callum Macrae Outsider TV
Nisha Parti Parti Productions
Nick Southgate Passion Pictures
Steve Smith Picture Zero Productions 
Mat Steiner Primal Media
Thomas Benski & Jamie Hall  Pulse Films
Jane Muirhead Raise the Roof Productions 
Alexander Gardiner Rare TV
Joely Fether Raw TV
Jim Allen RDF Television
Alan Hayling & Alex Cooke Renegade Pictures
Joanna Ball Ricochet
Edward Barlow Ringside Studios 
Robert Marsh Robert & Friends 
Rochelle Stevens Rochelle Stevens & co
Kay Mellor  Rollem Production Company 
Ash Atalla Roughcut Television
Iain Wimbush & Emily Hudd  Rumpus Media 
Donald Coutts Scotch
Teresa Potocka  Sensethefuture Pictures 
Joe Talbot Short Form Film Co.
Simon Williamson Simon Williamson Agency
Jane Featherstone  Sister
Linda James & Savannah James-Bayly Sly Fox Productions 
Mel Leach South Shore 
Joff Powell, Steve Havers & Mark Baker Spark Media 
Andrew Newman Spelthorne Community Television
Natalie Humphreys  Storyboard Studios 
Steve Wynne Strawberry Blond
Brandon Relph Studio BE
Stephen Lambert Studio Lambert
Neil Crombie Swan Films
Michael Hutchinson-Uzielli Tangent Films 
Steve Humphries  Testimony Films 
Lucy Vernall The Academic Ideas Lab
Nicola Hill & John Hay The Garden
Charlie Read & Niall Murdoch  The Outfit
Simone Pennant MBE  The TV Collective 
Claire Zolkwer Thunderclap Media
Helen Tonge  Title Role 
David Parfitt Trademark Films 
Claire Scally & Margaret Scott TRC
Jess Fowle True North
Barbara Orton True TV and Film
Karen Smith Tuesday’s Child
Alan Clements Two Rivers Media
David Olusoga & Mike Smith Uplands
Sanjay Singhal Voltage TV
Adrian Bate Vox Pictures 
Jannine Waddell Waddell Media
Leanne Klein Wall to Wall and Twenty Twenty 
Mark Herbert & Peter Carlton Warp Films
Tom Miller Water & Power Productions
Simon Alveranga and Phil Good We Are Kash ltd
Hugh Whitworth Whitworth Media 
Paul Islwyn Thomas Wildflame
Allison Todd Windfall Films 
Archie Baron  Wingspan Productions
Samantha Anstiss Wonderhood Studios
Kate Beal  Woodcut Media
Siân Price Yeti Television
David Flynn & Lucas Church  Youngest Media 

If you would like to join email not4sale@broadcastnow.co.uk indicating whether you are joining in a personal capacity or signing up your business, to enable Broadcast to highlight each area when publishing the results.

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