Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

ITN submits its response to the Governments consultation into a change of ownership of Channel 4

15/09/2021

ITN has today (15th September 2021) submitted its response to the government's consultation into a change of ownership of Channel 4.

Click here to view the full submission (PDF) Due to its unique position as the supplier of the channel's independent news service, ITN remains impartial on the ownership model of Channel 4. While recognising that audience habits are changing and broadcasters are adapting their businesses accordingly, ITN argues that it would need to be presented with further evidence as to why private ownership would provide a more sustainable model for Channel 4 in the future.

In the submission ITN also argue that Channel 4's ongoing success lies in defining and strengthening the existing remit rather than altering the ownership model to one that prioritises profit over the kind of risk-taking that allows Channel 4 News to report stories other broadcasters won't cover.

Arguing that if privatisation were to take place, there would need to be a protection and enhancement regarding the provision of nations and regions coverage, foreign news reporting, and a commitment to investigations as well as on diversity and appealing to every group in the UK across all the platforms they use; a specific ring-fenced budget for Channel 4 News in perpetuity plus Retail Price Index (RPI); guarantees that the programme would continue to have a fixed one-hour primetime slot in the schedule; and continued editorial independence from its owner.

ITN is deeply committed to the principle that the UK should have a thriving pluralistic media industry with a variety of organisations competing for audiences and creating uniquely British content that audiences recognise and relate to; and believes it is vital for viewers to have access to high-quality, accurate and regulated journalism from a variety of independent sources. ITN notes that the value of alternative voices in news provision and the part this plays in fostering a healthy democracy has been recognised by figures across the political spectrum.

Channel 4 News is one of only two programmes that have been on air continuously since Channel 4 started broadcasting in 1982 and is the single most awarded news programme in the UK. Its distinct and valued place in the new media landscape is made possible due to Channel 4's unique not-for-profit publisher-broadcaster status that goes hand-in-hand with its remit to innovate and appeal to the culturally diverse UK audience. It's this unique position in the industry that enables Channel 4 News to provide a counterbalance to other news providers including the BBC and there are valid questions about how a move to privatise Channel 4 could impact on the media plurality to which ITN is committed.

As an independent producer serving the three main public service broadcasters ITN believes that the publisher/broadcaster status of Channel 4 should be preserved. By commissioning an independent, external supplier to produce its news output, Channel 4 can demonstrate complete editorial integrity. A private owner with its own in-house production arm could undermine the independence of the news and have undue influence on the news agenda. Removing the publisher/broadcaster status would remove a major buyer of content in the UK and have an adverse impact on the independent production market that relies on Channel 4 for a proportion of commissions and work.
LINK: https://www.itn.co.uk/press-releases/c4-consultation/...
See more stories from itn

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

11/08/2026

Dolby Acquires VVC Patents From Florida Atlantic University

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/08/2026

Alyson Stewart Joins Zixi as Senior Director, Sales

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/08/2026

FCC Issues Alert Over Scammers Impersonating Its Commissioners

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/08/2026

Comcast, Disney Ink Deal to End NFL Network Blackout

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/08/2026

farmerswife and Cirkus are Exhibiting at IBC 2026

farmerswife and Cirkus will return to IBC 2026 to showcase new tools designed to help broadcast, media and post-production teams manage workflows with greater s...

11/08/2026

LiveU Powers Cross-Venue Coverage of Glasgow Commonwealth...

LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit played a central role in the host broadcast operation for the Games in Glasgow (July 23 to August 2, 2026). The host b...

11/08/2026

Jigsaw24 Appoints James Morse as Client Director to Drive...

Jigsaw24 has appointed James Morse as Client Director, Media Sales, as it deepens its focus on sports, live events and integrated production. His appointment co...

11/08/2026

Net Insight enables one of Europes largest broadcast grad...

Net Insight today announced that DMC Production Norway has selected its Open Live Media solution to centralize the production of Blinkfestivalen 2026. Combining...

11/08/2026

Vivaro Supports Record World Cup Audiences with the Appea...

Modular HEVC and JPEG XS workflows enabled resilient, ultra-low-latency delivery for leading linear and digital media platforms across all 104 matches Appear A...

11/08/2026

Homecoming Artist Spotlight: Fabiola Mndez

Homecoming Artist Spotlight: Fabiola M ndez The first cuatrista to graduate from Berklee talks about the community that shaped her career ahead of her Homecom...

11/08/2026

FOR-A To Highlight MixBoard, Viztrik AiDi Enhancement At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/08/2026

AMWA and EBU to Host Demos at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

11/08/2026

Dalet Solution Suites Enable Media Teams to Move Like a S...

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced Dalet Solution Suites, a new portfolio of cloud-native solutions ...

11/08/2026

Mediagenix Helps Broadcasters Prepare for Brazil DTV Futu...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase how media companies can prep...

11/08/2026

Transforming your audience into advocates with Kelsey Gamble

Transforming your audience into advocates with Kelsey Gamble 10 August 2026 Building community, harnessing fandom for marketing and activating the four stages ...

11/08/2026

Why Scaling AI Compute Performance Requires a New Power Architecture

Every new generation of accelerated computing demands more from the infrastructure underneath it - more compute performance, higher rack density and more effici...

11/08/2026

Documentary reflecting on the 2015 Marriage Equality Referendum to air on RT

A Day in May airs Wednesday 12 August at 9.35pm RT One and RT Player A Day in May revisits the people and stories behind Ireland's historic marriage equa...

11/08/2026

NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning and NeMo Switchyard Deliver Faster, Smarter, More Efficient Agentic AI

As AI shifts from chatbots to autonomous agents, open models are serving market ...

11/08/2026

NVIDIA and Local AI Community Fuel Open Source Models and Intelligent Agents

The open source ecosystem is making it easier for AI enthusiasts and developers to build, customize and run increasingly capable agents locally. Throughout Au...

10/08/2026

Apple to Bring Friday Night Baseball' Live to Apple Immersive on Vision Pro Beginning Aug. 28

Weekly immersive broadcasts will feature 8K 3D video, a 180-degree field of view...

10/08/2026

Raiju from fedDSP

Saturation plug-in free until 20 August 2026 fedDSP have announced the launch of Raiju, a new guitar pedal-style saturation plug-in that's capable of de...

10/08/2026

I/O Music release Talkback

New mix-comparison & feedback tool Independent Swedish record label I/O Music have recently released a handy new tool that provides artists, engineers, prod...

10/08/2026

Sound Radix launch Radical1 Solo

Additive soft synth gains free counterpart Sound Radix have just released a free monophonic additive software synth that's based on the same engine as t...

10/08/2026

Chroma integrates MXO oscilloscopes into ATS 8000 platform, rounding out its high-end power testing ecosystem

Chroma integrates MXO oscilloscopes into ATS 8000 platform, rounding out its hig...

10/08/2026

Former NAB Tech Exec Tom Keller Has Died

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/08/2026

Matthews Bows Monitor Stand III

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/08/2026

AES Elects David v.R. Bowles as President-Elect for 2027

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/08/2026

NUGEN Audio Helps SFCM Students Achieve Professional Mixe...

Students in the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) gain rare, real world experience in professio...

10/08/2026

FOR-A demonstrates new and practical solutions to real ch...

FOR-A is using its presence at IBC2026 (stand 2.B53, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to show how its products deliver the answers to the real challenges faced...

10/08/2026

Frontier EU brings broadcast-grade network resilience to...

Frontier EU, official Peplink distributor for Europe, will exhibit at IBC 2026 in Amsterdam from 11 to 14 September, presenting live demonstrations of how Pepli...

10/08/2026

Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage Premiere Pro

Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage Premiere Pro Michael Cioni August 10, 2026 0 Comments This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup...

10/08/2026

Stunning Pixelated ASCII Effect for Apple Motion

Stunning Pixelated ASCII Effect for Apple Motion Simon Ubsdell August 10, 2026 0 Comments Apple Motion is perfect for building this popular ASCII unic...

10/08/2026

New York Jets, CBS New York Extend Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/08/2026

Welcome to the Show: Sky Creative unites football fans with start of season campaign

Monday 10 August 2026 Welcome to the Show : Sky Creative unites football fans w...

10/08/2026

Red Seat Ventures' Speakeasy Brings Video to Apple Podcasts, Beginning with Surrounded

Red Seat Ventures' Speakeasy Brings Video to Apple Podcasts, Beginning with ...

10/08/2026

30% More Pumping Hours With Autonomous Frac Operations

A major unconventional operator increased monthly pumping hours by more than 30% by automating critical frac completion processes and eliminating common sources...

10/08/2026

Apple, MLB announce September \u201CFriday Night Baseball\u201D schedule - UPDATE - Posted on 10 August 2026

Today, Apple and Major League Baseball (MLB) unveiled the September schedule for...

09/08/2026

reFX introduce Rippler

Combines physical modelling with subtractive synthesis reFX, the company behind the popular Nexus and Vanguard2 soft synths have announced the launch of the...

09/08/2026

Dreamtonics tease upcoming release

Human nuance is not a switch Dreamtonics have built up a solid reputation off the back of their Synthesizer V Studio software, a powerful vocal-synthesis t...

09/08/2026

COW Jobs: Documentary Editor - Remote

COW Jobs: Documentary Editor - Remote Brie Clayton August 9, 2026 0 Comments Documentary Editor July 31, 2026COW Jobs: Lead Generation Representativ...

08/08/2026

IK Multimedia launch Tonex 2.0 beta

Enhanced ToneNET integration & 220 new Premium V2 Tone Models IK Multimedia have just launched a public beta of Tonex 2.0, a release which is said to repres...

08/08/2026

Roland celebrate 808 Day

Honouring the drum machine that redefined modern music Roland have announced their plans for this year's 808 Day, a day that was founded to celebrate th...

08/08/2026

Call for Entries Now Open for the 20th Annual South African Film & Television Awards (SAFTAs20)

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...

08/08/2026

Star Wars Hyperspeed Tutorial: The No-Echo Method in After Effects

Star Wars Hyperspeed Tutorial: The No-Echo Method in After Effects Graham Quince August 8, 2026 0 Comments The Echo Effect to create long streaks is n...

08/08/2026

Chyron Releases AXIS 4.0 With Expanded News Workflows and Richer Map Storytelling

Chyron Releases AXIS 4.0 With Expanded News Workflows and Richer Map Storytellin...

08/08/2026

Nielsen to Acquire DoubleVerify for $2.15 Billion

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...