Burnham backs Channel 4
The culture secretary Andy Burnham has pledged to save Channel 4 and favours a deal with BBC Worldwide over a potential merger with Channel Five.
Speaking at the Oxford Media Convention today, Burnham said “the Channel 4 brand is here to stay” and will play a pivotal role in providing plurality of public service content beyond the BBC.
He said: “We should build on our strengths and an important strength of the British system in this regard is the publicly-owned Channel 4. Today, as we anticipate the Oscar nominations and British success, we hope that Channel 4’s brand will feature strongly.
“At this point the clearest path forward is to see Channel 4 as a major contributor to a new reservoir of high quality public service content, which offers scale and reach and ambition to match the BBC,” he added.
Burham favours a partnership with BBC Worldwide, as long as it “continues to meet the needs of the BBC as well as releasing value and resource to create a new model with Channel 4”.
However, he also said that “other options must remain on the table, including exploring the value of any surplus in the licence fee pre or post switchover, and top slicing”.
“We have to be open-minded about the organisational solutions currently proposed, and to any others that may come forward in the next weeks,” he said.
Speaking about the future of the BBC, Burnham said the corporation will be the “enabling force” of digital Britain – “using its talent, facilities, resources and the BBC brand value to add to public service content production as a whole”.
However, he added: “I know I am not the first Secretary of State to suggest additions to Lord Reith’s founding trilogy. But, seriously, it is time to add a fourth – to put partnership in the BBC DNA – educate, inform, entertain – and enable.
“We must recognise that the BBC can’t play this enabling role unless it too has stability at the core. We have to treasure and protect the strength of the BBC if we are to ask it to transmit its value to others in new and innovative ways,” he continued.
Burnham also encouraged the potential regional TV news partnership between the BBC and ITV, claiming it would deliver valuable outcomes for the public.
“If secured the proposals being developed by BBC and ITV would be groundbreaking, and would go a long way towards securing a future for regional news on ITV, as well as build confidence that further public-private partnership models can deliver real solutions,” he said.
According to Burnham, there are more partnership ideas to consider, which would secure extra public value and deliver on the wider PSB agenda.
He said: “The climate demands us to extract more value from existing public investment in PSB. This is only the start, and can be taken further.
“We should remember that Channel 4, Five and ITV serve us well and we should not start reading their obituaries whilst they continue to offer the public much appreciated services,” he concluded.
Channel Four: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv