John Whittingdale’s misguided plan

Early next month, Channel 4 will publish its annual report. It is no secret in the industry that it will register record revenues, and most likely profits too.

Much of the media coverage will focus on bonuses to senior execs (especially following last year’s eyebrow-raising 100% pay-outs) but C4, Broadcast’s current Channel of the Year, is in rude health commercially and creatively.

Yet culture secretary John Whittingdale is worried. He believes it is too dependent on a “volatile advertising market”, and could be stronger if part or fully owned by a private company “with deep pockets”.

It is hard to see why, particularly as C4 already has sizeable cash reserves.

Perhaps it has been slightly over cautious in the years since the last recession, but there is a sense that newly installed chairman Charles Gurassa is ready to urge the broadcaster to up its ambitions.

Now in a position of greater strength than at any time in David Abraham’s tenure, its £220m reserves could be made to work harder, most obviously supplementing the programming budget, but also supercharging the Growth Fund or accelerating its data strategy.

If left to its own devices, C4 is in a very good position to grow and become even more influential in British TV – without the need to chase profits.

That seems increasingly unlikely. Addressing the House of Lords communications committee this week, Whittingdale gave his clearest comments yet in favour of privatisation.

Not all of what he said added up. The culture secretary attacked C4’s daytime schedule for predominately consisting of “Will & Grace repeats, a great deal of Frasier and Four In A Bed”, implying a new owner would change that.

Of the many impressive things achieved at Channel 5 since it was acquired by Viacom, stuffing the daytime schedule with innovative originations is not one.

Whittingdale is right about one thing: there would be no shortage of suitors for Channel 4. The opportunity to acquire such prime broadcasting real estate and such a resonant brand has never come up before, and there could well be a bidding war.

But the culture secretary claims his plan is not about returning money to the Treasury. Instead, it is about safeguarding a broadcaster that already looks rather secure.

The danger is that an organisation that has always been distinct from the commercial sector and that has played a key role in the growth of the production community would lose what has made it special.

Would a privately owned C4 order quirky comedy Flowers (pictured), let alone strip it across a week at 10pm?

Chris Curtis is editor of Broadcast