That’s what you’d get by putting together Bertelsmann-owned Channel 5, the loss-making state-owned Channel 4, and ITV, the monopoly holder of the channel 3 franchise in the UK.
A two-dimensional version of this three cornered merger idea was discussed here earlier during Wednesday’s Market Live – namely, a merger of ITV and Channel 4.
Seasoned industry watchers were understandably sceptical, but now MediaGuardian.co.uk has published more detail on this fantastical plan.
ITV has drawn up a radical plan for a three-way merger with Channel 4 and Channel Five that would prompt one of the biggest shakeups in British broadcasting history. Executives from ITV, which is expected to report a huge drop in profits when it unveils its annual results for 2008 next week, believe merging the UK’s three main advertiser-funded commercial broadcasters may be the only way to guarantee its survival in the face of the most challenging market conditions for a generation, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.
The idea, it seems, is to create “a broadcasting giant which would rival the BBC in scale and scope,” although it apparently comes with a “Plan B” whereby Channel 4 would morph into a pure public service broadcaster, shorn of advertising revenues, the bulk of which would then flow to a newly-merged Channels 4 and 5.
Which is where this whole idea meets the M&A equivalent of Paris Hilton’s BBF.
It’s trash. It’s toe-curling. It is not grounded in real life. We can see the scenery moving.
Merging ITV, Ch4 and Ch5 would create a new monopoly TV platform controlling two thirds of British broadcasting advertising revenue.
It would require a competition policy whitewash, as we saw in the banking sector last autumn. But ITV isn’t HBOS, is it?
Related link:
Digital Britain – the future of communications – by Stephen Carter, the first Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting.