Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham has told the TV industry to “wake up to the consequences” of commercial broadcasters such as ITV and Channel 4 falling into American hands, warning that it would be “sleepwalking … into a different country”.
Abraham said there was an “omertà about being really honest about how different we are to the cultures of American corporations” and quoted a fellow delegate at the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge who compared Philippe Dauman, chief executive of MTV and Channel 5 owner Viacom, to a cheese salesman.
Abraham said there was no indication that the government planned to privatise Channel 4, although culture secretary John Whittingdale has repeatedly refused to rule it out in the future.
“This is into the area of hypothesis,” Abraham told the convention on Thursday when asked about the prospect of Channel 4 being privatised.
“What does the world look like if all of those cards fell: ITV, a different settlement for the BBC and in a hopefully unlikely way, Channel 4 as well? Then you are in a different country. We really do need to wake up to the consequences of all those cards falling in that way and it’s pretty much what I said a year ago [delivering the MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh], I still believe it.
“I am incredibly proud of what this country is capable of doing. We should really work to preserve what it is that makes us special. Let’s not sleepwalk into this, because there’s a sort of omertà around being really honest about how different we are to the cultures of American corporations. It’s not that they are not creative, but we are different, let’s preserve what makes us different.”
Abraham said when he walked out of a session featuring Dauman yesterday someone said he’s a very nice man but he could be selling cheese”. Abraham said: “These are different cultures and let’s be open about that.”
He added: “I’ve had lots of teasing about being anti-American but it’s much more about let’s preserve what makes Britain great.”
Whittingdale told the Edinburgh TV festival last month that Channel 4 privatisation was not under discussion but refused to rule it out and said he would not “run to the hills” if a US broadcaster wanted to buy ITV.
“The ownership of Channel 4 is not currently under debate. Do I say there are no circumstances in which I would ever consider it? No I don’t.”
