Channel Four Television Corporation

Channel Four Television Corporation is a British state-owned media company headquartered in London. Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Channel 4.

The company was founded in 1982 as the Channel Four Television Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the IBA, and became an independent statutory corporation in 1993. November 1998 saw Channel Four expand beyond its remit of providing the 'fourth service' in a significant way, with the launch of Film4. Since then the corporation has been involved in a range of other activities, all in some way associated with the main channel, and mainly using the '4' brand.

The television company also owned The Box Plus Network, a music focused company with a network of six music television channels. One of them, 4Music, is a Channel 4-branded channel within Box Plus. It was folded into the corporation in 2019.

History

Towards the end of the 1980s, the government began a radical process of re-organisation of the commercial broadcasting industry, which was written onto the statute books by means of the Broadcasting Act 1990. Significantly, this meant the abolition of the IBA, and hence the Channel Four Television Company. The result led to the creation of a corporation to own and operate the channel, which would have greater autonomy and would eventually go on to establish its other operations. The new corporation, which became operational in 1993, was the Channel Four Television Corporation, and was created to replace the former broadcasting operations of the Channel Four Television Company. It remained publicly-owned and was regulated by the new Independent Television Commission (ITC), created under the same act. The ITC and its duties were later replaced by Ofcom, which like its predecessor is responsible for appointing the corporation's board, in agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

In terms of the station's remit and other duties, the creation of the corporation meant little change; the new corporation would have to manage its own advertising, rather than this being carried out on its behalf by the local ITV contractors (see Funding).

In March 2010, Channel Four Television Corporation and its chief executive were criticised by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee for breaking service commitments, a lack of transparency in accounting for digital channels, poor governance and failed investments.

Channel Four Television Corporation was considered for privatisation by the governments of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair. In 2014, the Cameron-Clegg coalition government drew up proposals to privatise the corporation but the sale was blocked by the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable. In 2016, the future of the channel was again being looked into by the government, with analysts suggesting several options for the channel's future. In June 2021, the government of Boris Johnson was considering selling the channel. In April 2022, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport acknowledged that ministerial discussions were taking place regarding the sale of Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel’s chief executive, Alex Mahon, expressed disappointment at this, saying that its vision for the future was "rooted in continued public ownership".

Current operations

Television services

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a national public-service television channel in the United Kingdom which began transmission on 2 November 1982. The channel was established to provide a fourth national television service in addition to the two BBC
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