ONE WAY to look at who should acquire Channel 4 is to actually look at what it is.

Namely, it's the second biggest UK commercial broadcaster, with no production assets but a strong brand franchise.

From that standpoint then, the three most logical buyers would be interested in consolidation. Each of ITV, ViacomCBS (owner of Channel 5) and Sky could make an argument that picking up the now for sale broadcaster could help them scale. One has a problem, however: ViacomCBS may have some difficulties persuading its shareholders to spend more than $1bn (£760m) on a terrestrial broadcaster.

That would seemingly leave ITV and Sky as the frontrunners.

Regulators might, of course, block it. The argument would be that either of those two buyers would then have too big a share of the UK television ads market - a stronger argument in the case of ITV.

I would argue that the world is changing fast and that the real market any newly-private Channel 4 would be competing in is actually the wider video advertising market. Is an ad played before a Youtube video really any different from a TV ad? If you extend the definition this new player would be competing against Youtube as well as Meta and Tiktok. Look at it that way and suddenly even a beefed up ITV or Sky starts to look a very different scale indeed. New Ofcom chair Lord Grade, a former boss of ITV, may have some sympathy with that view.

As a dark horse, I would not rule out Discovery as a potential player - though there is perhaps less of a natural fit since they do not already own one of the major broadcasters. Never say never, though. And as we know - it's never wise to rule out a mystery bidder. £ Ian Whittaker is a media analyst and founder of Liberty Sky Advisors

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