Skip links
Published on: Updates

Patrick Barwise analyses the Government’s plan to privatise Channel 4

Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management and marketing at the London Business School and co-author of The War Against the BBC, has prepared two analyses of the Government’s plan to privatise Channel 4.

In the first document, Barwise deconstructs the Government’s consultation. He guides us through their case for privatisation, and tells us how the apparent benefits of privatisation can all be achieved while Channel 4 remains publicly owned. If you want to respond to the consultation yourself – as we hope you will – he also gives details of his own answers to the questions within, and the reasoning behind them.

In the second document, Barwise tells us about the strengths of Channel 4 as it is currently organised and outlines why the Government have chosen this moment to propose the privatisation of Channel 4. He also explains why privatisation was a bad idea when last proposed in 2015, and why it remains a bad idea today.