Don’t let government force our hand on C4 sale

Magicians call it ‘forcing’.

Two cards are put in front of you. You’re told to pick one. If you pick the one on the left, they say, “Okay, that card’s yours”. If you pick the one on the right, they say, “Okay, let’s remove that card”. Either way, you pick the card on left.

Consultations can sometimes feel like that. The government’s consultation document on Channel 4 certainly does, but without any of the finesse of a good magician. Pick any card, as long as it’s privatisation.

I spent four years at BBC Studios before joining Shine Television, and was lucky enough to join the BBC just as the in-house production division became commercially independent. One of the things that really struck me in the first few meetings we at BBC Studios had with commercial broadcasters was how immediately they grasped the commercial potential of skills and ideas honed in a public service environment.

These included a razor-like focus on the interests and needs of viewers; a commitment to independent thinking, impartiality and honesty; top quality training and craft skills; and an obsession with quality – the PSB values that coursed through the veins of the BBC’s former in-house teams are also, in the right context, values that put bums on seats.

C4’s remit drives a similar kind commercially-valuable creativity, in a complimentary way. The channel’s remit to be innovative and disruptive drives series like Hunted. Would a C4 in private ownership have taken such a bold creative risk? I doubt it.

C4’s commitment to the format has helped it connect with younger audiences at home and abroad, with new versions of the show being made all over the world. The government claims C4 needs more scope to raise money, yet there are plenty of examples of commercial ingenuity. The reboot of Changing Rooms that we at Shine are making in partnership with C4 and Dulux is just one example.

C4’s PSB remit is unlikely to survive a sale intact. Any buyer would insist on it being narrowed, and our creative economy would suffer as a result. Without the twin public service forces of the BBC and C4, supporting small and fledgling Indies as well as more established ones, it would be immeasurably harder for ambitious creative entrepreneurs to build businesses. Put bluntly, the deals would become worse.

A privately-owned C4 would push for an ever greater share of IP, while also favouring its own production businesses. The dream of starting up an indie at your kitchen table and growing it into a global business will wither and die. And without that dream, our industry will attract fewer of the brilliant young and diverse creatives that we so badly need.

The public service remits of C4 and the BBC forces us to think differently to our rivals around the world. It’s part of what gives us a creative edge. It’s what forces us to think beyond the more well-trodden routes to success. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s better than the other alternatives.

In C4, we have a publisher-broadcaster that pumps all its profits back into the industry, and supports the new voices that will help drive success in the future. Little wonder that Banijay UK, the parent company of Shine along with many other UK indies, supports Broadcast’s Not4Sale campaign so emphatically.

The public service obsession with viewers, diversity, innovation and quality helps ensure the originality of our shows and formats remain the envy of the world. Add into that mix the different needs and ambitions of commercial buyers at home and abroad, and you have a unique broadcasting ecosystem that helps people build businesses as well as make brilliant programmes.

Sell off C4 and that unusual combination of forces disappears for good. It’ll be a disaster for our creative economy and we run the risk of losing the creative entrepreneurs of the future. We won’t have businesses that are IP powerhouses, we’ll just have production warehouses.

The choice for producers will be: “Pick a deal, any deal… as long as it’s that one.”

Jon Swain is managing director of Shine Television