Broadcast, the monthly magazine for the UK television and radio industry, covering a wide range of news and issues affecting the professional broadcast market in the UK has recently launched a campaign to fight C4 being sold off. It is asking independent production companies to lend their support.
Now Ricky Gervais, who needs no introduction, has tweeted against the UK Governments proposal to sell-off Channel 4.
“For almost 40 years, Channel 4 has been a launch pad for new ideas and new talent. It’s been able to do that because of its remit and not-for-profit structure and it would be a real shame if that was destroyed by selling off the channel.”
Channel 4’s website says: ‘
Channel 4 is free-to-air and freely available to all of the UK. We have the UK’s biggest free streaming service, All 4, plus a network of 12 television channels.
Since Channel 4 was created in 1982, it has been at the centre of national conversations and a catalyst for the creation of a world-beating production sector in the UK.
Our purpose is to create change through entertainment. We do this by representing unheard voices, challenging with purpose and reinventing entertainment.
Our unique model – commercially-funded but publicly-owned – means that we’re able to offer independent and distinctive, universal content reflecting the interests of different communities across the UK.
As a publisher-broadcaster, Channel 4 commissions UK content from the independent production sector and currently works with around 300 creative companies across the UK every year.