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Pact Slams Channel 4’s IP Play and In-House Production Plans: ‘A Bitter Pill to Swallow for the Indie Sector’
Pact has delivered a blistering critique of Channel 4's plans to acquire production companies outright and launch in-house production capabilities.
The U.K. screen sector trade body for independent production and distribution companies revealed it was given virtually no advance notice of the sweeping changes, receiving only a summary of the proposals “late yesterday” before the public announcement on Wednesday. “Having fought very hard against the privatization of Channel 4, this is a bitter pill to swallow for the indie sector,” said Pact CEO John McVay in a statement that signals growing tensions between the public service broadcaster and the production community that has supplied its content for over four decades. As Mahon prepares to exit the broadcaster in July, leaving incoming interim CEO Jonathan Allan to navigate these contentious waters, the indie production sector appears poised for a protracted battle over what many view as an existential threat to the unique creative ecosystem that has defined British television for decades.
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