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Originally Posted by epsilon
No and no. It would need a massive investment to build new production studios and why would an investor spend money building new infrastructure for a company supposedly losing its main source of income? The trend has been away from TV companies making their own programmes for years. Thames was a major content producer as have been the successor companies of the original Thames owners (Fremantle etc). Carlton, however, preferred to commission content from independent producers when it took over the London weekday franchise. The bulk of the production facilities of the former ITV regional franchises has been disposed of. It would be a very strange move for Channel 4 to try to reverse the trend of the last few decades. If an investor wishes to start a production venture, surely it would be better to start from scratch rather than take on the commitments of a PSB.
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Tory policy since the 1980s has been to maintain an environment in which independent TV production companies can thrive. Channel 4 has been a commissioner rather than a maker from the outset; the BBC’s charter renewed in 1981 began to compel it to commission a percentage of its content rather than making it in-house. As recently as 2016 the government was threatening to compel the BBC to commission 100% of its content externally. Offering in-house production potential as a supposed benefit of privatisation of Channel 4 is perverse.