Government document considers Channel 4 'privatisation options'

The document was headed "Assessment of Channel 4 Corporation Reform Options"

The government says it has made no decisions about reforming Channel 4 after an official was pictured holding papers that proposed its privatisation.

The photograph of the memo was posted on Twitter by photographer Steve Back.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the government was looking at a "range of options" on reform.

Channel 4 commented that its "not-for-profit model enables it to deliver significant public value to viewers and the UK economy."

The "official - sensitive: commercial" document is dated 24 September 2015 and headed "Assessment of Channel 4 Corporation Reform Options".

It says there has been a "recent meeting" between Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock and two unnamed secretaries of state.

The document reads: "You agreed that work should proceed [to] examine the options for extracting greater public value from the Channel 4 Corporation (C4C), focusing on privatisation options in particular, whilst protecting its ability to deliver against its remit.

"This submission outlines the options we propose to explore."

In response to the photograph, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: "Channel 4 has an important remit and we are looking at a range of options as to how to continue to deliver this, including options put forward by Channel 4."

Channel 4 was launched in 1982 as a publicly-owned, commercially-funded public service broadcaster. It does not receive public funding and has a remit to be "innovative, experimental and distinctive".

In August, culture secretary John Whittingdale said a sale of Channel 4 was not currently being discussed.

"The ownership of Channel 4 is not currently under debate. Do I say there are no circumstances in which I would ever consider it? No I don't," he told the Edinburgh International Television Festival.