Andy Duncan rules out merger with Five

Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan has ruled out a merger with Five as a cure for the funding problems it faces.

Duncan, speaking today at an event organised by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, said that a merger would be like mixing “oil with water”.

He said: “We have been carefully considering all options for Channel 4’s future funding. And for the avoidance of doubt, let me be absolutely specific on one point.

“It makes no sense whatsoever to imagine that merging a not-for-profit publicly owned broadcast business with a for-profit, privately owned broadcaster is going to solve the fundamental structural problems we are all facing. Mixing oil and water doesn’t work. It just makes a mess.”

He added that consolidating the two broadcasters was a “solution of the past” and was like “penguins crowding together for safety on a rapidly melting ice floe”.

“What I am saying is it doesn’t make sense to consolidate before radically restructuring the industry. We need to get the strategic piece right first.”

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