According to sources, UK Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to scrap plans to privatise Channel 4.
Under the time she was in office, Nadine Dorries, who oversaw the initiative during Boris Johnson’s administration, announced the intention to remove the broadcaster from public control.
Donelan said that she has “concluded that pursuing a sale at this point is not the right decision and there are better ways to secure C4C’s (Channel 4 Corporation) sustainability and that of the independent production sector” in a letter to Rishi Sunak that Lewis Goodall of Global released.
The Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher established Channel 4 in 1982; it is out of public ownership and wholly supported by advertising.
Donelan has previously questioned attempts to privatise the station. He was nominated by Liz Truss and continued in the position when Sunak became prime minister.
To ensure “we still agree with that decision,” she said that she was re-evaluating the “business case.”
The government said that its decision to remove the channel from public ownership last year was intended to help the broadcaster thrive in a market dominated by companies like Netflix and Amazon.
We don’t comment on speculative claims, according to a Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) representative.
