Boris Johnson had already signed off on proposals to sell the public broadcaster and culture secretary Nadine Dorries was preparing to push legislation authorizing the change through parliament in the autumn. Detailed proposals to sell the broadcaster were due to be published next week as part of wider legislation on media matters, ensuring the review could begin before parliament adjourned for summer recess. But government sources said delays in drafting the media bill – along with uncertainty over what the current caretaker government might do – meant that deadline was likely to be missed. As a result, the bill, which also includes media policies designed to help British broadcasters in their battle with US-owned streaming companies, will only be ready when parliament returns in September. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST A new Conservative prime minister will have to decide whether to go ahead with privatizing Channel 4. Several Tory leadership candidates at the more centrist end of the spectrum have previously expressed doubts about the sale plan, including Jeremy Hunt and Tom Tugendhat. The policy could take up significant parliamentary time and be seen as a leftover policy from the previous government. Andrew Griffiths, a key aide to Boris Johnson, was seen as the main driver of policy alongside Dorries. Both are expected to lose their jobs when Johnson steps down. Channel 4 is state-owned but operates on a commercial basis with a commitment to reinvest its profits into new programmes. The broadcaster insists it is profitable and self-sustaining in public ownership, but ministers insist it faces financial difficulty going forward as it will be overspent in the future. Dorris has repeatedly denied that plans to privatize the channel are motivated by Channel 4’s perceived left-wing bias. A change of party leader does not necessarily mean that the privatization plan is completely dead. Removing the sale of Channel 4 from the rest of the media bill, much of which has been widely welcomed by the British TV industry, could prove difficult. Another issue facing Channel 4 bosses is ambivalence among Conservative MPs over the issue of privatisation, which could be either a blessing or a curse. Many MPs see the privatization of the broadcaster as a low-priority issue and therefore not worth parliamentary time – but equally their ambivalence means they may not be willing to rebel in large enough numbers to prevent a sell-off.
