ITV may make a bid to take over Channel 4, according to reports.
The commercial station told ministers it would be interested in making an offer for its publicly owned rival, according to business reports yesterday, creating a British “superchannel”.
Channel 4 will be privatised by 2024 with an estimated price of £1billion.
ITV is understood to have taken advice from bankers including Credit Suisse. But it would not be alone in wanting to buy the channel.
Bids are expected from both sides of the Atlantic, with speculation that Sky, Olympics broadcaster Discovery and Channel 5 owner Paramount may all be in the running.
A tie-up between Channel 4 and ITV would create a TV powerhouse combining the former’s roster of hit shows and documentaries such as Gogglebox, Friday Night Dinner and Dispatches with ratings hits from the latter including Love Island and Trigger Point.
It would also boost ITV’s own online plans – the channel announced new streaming service ITVX last month.
According to reports yesterday, a merger would hand the combined business an estimated 70% of the British TV advertising market and the firepower to invest heavily in new programming, to rival the likes of Netflix and Disney+.
Channel 4, founded in 1982 to deliver programmes to under-served audiences, is currently owned by the Government.
Its annual programming budget a year before the pandemic was around £660million, funding the likes of It’s A Sin and The Great British Bake Off.
Channel 4 derives more than 90% of its almost £1billion annual revenues from advertising and has around 28% of the total UK TV advertising market.
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Its rival ITV has 45%. Sky Media, which also sells Channel 5’s ads, has around 27%.
A spokesman for Channel 4 said it was “disappointed” with the decision to privatise it.
It said it would continue to engage with the Government on the process to “ensure that Channel 4 continues to play its unique part in Britain’s creative ecology and national life”.
The channel said it had presented the Government with a financially viable alternative to privatisation.
ITV declined to comment on any plans. A channel source said initial reports were “well ahead of reality”.
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