Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her oral evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of November 2021 that Channel 4 is in receipt of public money, if she will confirm what public funding Channel 4 receives.

As a self-financing public corporation, under its current ownership model, Channel 4 is publicly-owned but commercially run.

Following an extensive public consultation, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has come to a decision that although Channel 4 as a business is currently performing well, public ownership is holding it back in the face of a rapidly-changing and competitive media landscape.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has consulted with Cabinet colleagues on that decision. The Government will publish its consultation response shortly, and set out the future plan for Channel 4 in a White Paper.