The MediaGuardian Monday section today features an edited version of a speech given by David Lloyd, Channel 4's former head of news and current affairs, in which he calls for the broadcaster to be subsisised with money from analogue switch off, among other things.
Here's the gist of Lloyd's idea:
"So here's my proposal. To redeem and to energise British television - and not a moment too soon. First re-capitalise Channel 4 with a public endowment (from the monies emerging from the auctioning of analogue bandwidth). Or, at the very least, allow it access to public borrowing on preferential terms.
"But, as a corollary to such a deal, convert the channel to a not-for-profit trust, on which serve as varied a range of television professionals as can be recruited, with a particular balance to the independent sector, present and past, small and large.
"Only thus, I argue, can the channel return to its founding spirit and culture, and deliver that to a contemporary purpose. Only thus, I argue, can Channel 4 come home to the independent sector. Where it properly should return - and where it always should have belonged - both for its own sake, and that of British television and its audience."
