Sony's Wayne Garvie Roasts 'Ridiculous' Channel 4 In-House Plan: 'It Could Be Potentially Disastrous'
The new Channel 4 in-house productions biz is 'preposterous,' 'ridiculous' and 'potentially disastrous' for the nation's irreverent public broadcaster, according to Sony international boss Wayne Garvie.
Garvie did not hold back at the Deloitte Conference this morning when queried over the future in-house biz, which is currently seeking a boss.
More from Deadline
BBC Director General Floats Concerning Vision Of Future Where "People Don't Care" About Nation's Oldest Public Broadcaster
Sky Boss Dana Strong Raises Artificial Intelligence Copyright Concerns: "I Can't Fathom How A Small Producer Keeps Up"
A24 Teaming With 'How To Have Sex's Molly Manning Walker On Women's Soccer Series For Channel 4
Instead of focusing on owning new IP via in-house, he said Channel 4, which is soon to be without a CEO and a Chair, should concentrate on a future where it comes together with the BBC.
'Those of us who run in-house production businesses know how difficult it is,' said Garvie, who oversees the likes of Doctor Who, Industry and Sex Education via Sony labels. 'If you're starting out and you don't own IP and have no institutional knowledge of how to run a production business it could be potentially disastrous for Channel 4.'
Garvie variously described the plan, which came in after Channel 4 avoided privatization and will allow it to own IP for the first time in its 40-year history, as 'ridiculous' and 'preposterous.' Last month, Channel 4 said it plans to take majority stakes in third-party production companies as part of the plan to move into in-house production. Jonathan Allan, Channel 4's COO and incoming interim CEO, declined to reveal the value of the company's indie investment war chest. Channel 4 has cash reserves of £111M ($150M).
'You lose money after the first three years,' added Garvie today. 'Maybe you make money in five years if you have great people but not money that will help Channel 4 really grow.'
Instead, he said Channel 4 should be thinking in a blue sky way about how it can combine with the BBC.
'We have five PSBs here in Britain, most other countries have one,' added Garvie. 'The future surely is the BBC and Channel 4 coming together and that should be focus of the new chair of Channel 4 and its CEO.'
Garvie was speaking at the Deloitte and Enders Media & Telecoms 2025 and Beyond Conference after Sky boss Dana Strong and before Netflix EMEA chief Larry Tanz and UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.
Best of Deadline
2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far
List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNET
an hour ago
- CNET
Amazon Deals of the Day: Lightning Deal Slashes 50% Off Anker's Portable Charger
Amazon sells a vast panoply of products, with new ones arriving daily. The retail giant carries everything from home essentials to tech gear and wellness items. As much as it loves adding new products, Amazon also loves cutting prices. Deciding which deals are worth grabbing (and which aren't) is a full-time job -- our job, specifically. That's why we scope out the top deals for you. Today, we spotted one of our favorite power banks down to half the regular price, but hurry supplies are going quick. We also found a two-pack of indoor Ring cameras for $60, down from $100. And finally, if you're looking for a solid pair of affordable headphones, Sony's budget pair just got a nice $22 price cut. Most of us are constantly on the go, which means we're bringing our devices with us. Keeping our devices like our phones charged can be a hassle, especially if you're hunting around for a place to plug your charger in. A portable charger can help you keep your phone powered up no matter where you are. The Anker Zolo portable power bank is our favorite portable charger for iPhones. We love it because it's pretty compact for an 10,000-mAh battery. It also has a pretty strong 30W charging power. It also has a LED screen with a battery life indicator. The USB-C cable tucks into a port on the battery, turning the cable into a lanyard when you don't have it plugged into a device. Normally $26, the black and pink color options are now down to $13. But hurry, this lighting deal is going fast. Protecting our homes is important to all of us, with many of us adding video doorbells and other types of security cams to the outside of our houses -- but what about the inside? Indoor security cameras can help you keep an eye on important areas, such as entryways, as well as your family and pets, no matter where you are. Many even opt to use these cams as a baby monitor. The Ring Stick Up Pro camera is our favorite portable indoor security camera of 2025. This camera can capture everything with 1080p HD video with features like Live View and Color Night Vision so you won't miss a thing. You can also get notifications to your phone when the camera detects movement, in real time. It works with Alexa so you can have a hands-free experience, too. You can score a two pack for $60 right now, bringing each camera to just $30. Since one camera normally retails for $60, you're getting these for basically half-off. Just like all nice things, much of the highest-quality audio gear is far from the cheapest. But we spotted a deal that can help bring down the cost of wireless headphones for bargain hunters. The Sony WH-CH520 wireless headphones are back to down to their all-time low price of $38. These headphones are our favorite on-ear budget headphones of 2025. They are lightweight and relatively comfortable considering they are on-ear headphones, and they're a good option for someone looking for something simple, as these headphones lack noise canceling and aren't packed with the high end features you'll find on other pairs. However, they have an exceptional battery life of up to 50 hours. They also have multipoint Bluetooth pairing, so you can pair them with two devices at the same time. Just about every color is on sale right now, so grab yours while you can. With so many deals on Amazon, deciding which ones are worth your money can be difficult. But CNET combs through what the world's largest online retailer has to offer and gathers the best deals for you.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Fact check: More people leave than arrive on current youth mobility schemes
On the BBC's Today programme on May 19, from around two hours and 21 minutes, Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the UK's youth mobility arrangements with other countries reduce net migration. Asked 'how do you know there will be fewer people coming here than leaving?' Mr Reynolds said: 'Well, I've got 13 schemes in action already and that's the evidence of them.' He later added: 'I tell you the evidence of the current schemes just so you know is that they're a net negative on immigration.' Around 24,400 youth mobility visas were issued to people wanting to come to the UK in 2024. Although figures are patchy for how many Britons go abroad, data from just three countries – Australia, New Zealand and Canada – suggests that 68,495 British citizens travelled to those countries in 2024 (the Australian data is for the 12 months to the end of June 2024). That would suggest that Mr Reynolds is right. However it does not take into account that Britons going abroad on these temporary visas will sooner or later come back, as will those who come to the UK. It is also not clear that this pattern will repeat in any similar deal with the EU. The UK population is much larger than those of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, so there are more Britons who can go to those countries than can come here. With the EU that is reversed. How many people come to the UK on a youth mobility visa? Government data shows there were 24,437 people who were handed a youth mobility visa last year. Most of these were from one of the 13 countries with which the UK has a reciprocal arrangement. A small handful of visas – 131 in total – were for people from countries other than the 13. The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford has suggested that these are the result of errors in data recording, or due to people having dual nationalities. The top three countries that sent people to the UK on youth mobility visas between January and December 2024 were Australia (9,754 visas), New Zealand (4,304 visas) and Canada (3,060 visas). How many Britons go abroad on youth mobility type schemes? Figures are patchy on how many British people have gone abroad on a youth mobility scheme. The Department for Business and Trade was unable to share data. Australia publishes a twice-yearly report into what it calls its working holiday visa programme. That is the Australian equivalent to the UK's youth mobility scheme. The latest such report covered the 12 months to the end of June 2024. That report showed that Australia issued 48,973 working holiday visas to UK citizens. Data from New Zealand is available on the website of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Using its migration data explorer produces a spreadsheet which shows that there were 9,486 working holiday visas granted by New Zealand to UK citizens in between January and December 2024. Canadian data does not appear to be publicly available, but the figures were provided to the PA news agency by the Canadian Department for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. The data shows that in 2024 there were 9,972 work permits issued to UK and UK overseas territories citizens under the country's working holiday scheme, and a further 64 people had their permits extended. How do incoming youth mobility visas compare to outgoing? Net migration is a figure which subtracts the number of people coming into the country from the number of people leaving. The data cited above suggests that while 9,754 Australians came to the UK on youth mobility visas, 48,973 Britons went in the opposite direction. It must be noted that the time periods measured here are different, the Australian data is for the 12 months ending June 2024, while the UK data is for the 12 months ending December 2024. Meanwhile the data suggests that 4,304 New Zealanders came to the UK while 9,486 Britons went in the other direction. Data further shows that 3,060 Canadians came to the UK in 2024, while 9,972 Britons went in the other direction. This suggests that for each of these three countries the youth mobility schemes are – as Mr Reynolds suggested – reducing net migration. In fact Australia alone appears to receive twice as many Britons (48,973) as all people who the UK receives from all 13 countries added together (24,437). However, it should be noted that because youth mobility schemes are time-limited, Britons going abroad and people who have come to the UK on such visas will eventually be forced to return. This means the UK's inbound migration figures should take into account not just Australians and Canadians – for example – coming to the UK, but also Britons returning from Australia and Canada after their youth mobility visas expire. If it is assumed that everyone returns then over a longer time frame the youth mobility programmes will have a neutral impact on net immigration because every Briton who leaves the UK will come back and every non-Briton who comes to the UK will leave. This does not take into account the people – both Britons abroad and non-Britons in the UK – who apply for a different visa to stay in their adopted country. Do these conclusions also apply to the EU scheme? The impact on net migration of the potential EU scheme will depend on the details of the agreement between London and Brussels. Madeleine Sumption, director at the Migration Observatory, told the PA news agency that the size of the cap on the programme would be vital for the impact on net migration. She said the fact the UK sends more people to Australia, Canada and New Zealand than it receives from them 'probably results from the fact that the UK has a much larger population than they do, so we just have more young people potentially interested in moving'. With the EU scheme, Ms Sumption said, the population sizes are flipped – that is to say the EU's population is much bigger than the UK, leaving more young people who might be willing to come here. Therefore the smaller the cap on the number of visas is, the more likely both the EU and UK will fill their quotas. If both fill their quotas – and the quotas going both ways are the same – then the impact on net migration will be zero. However if the cap is large then it is more likely that there will not be as many Britons going to Europe as are coming in the opposite direction, which will bring up net migration. But, as with the existing schemes, both Britons in Europe and Europeans in the UK will eventually have to leave unless they find another visa, which over the long run should mean that the programme has a neutral impact on net migration. BBC – Today, 19/05/2025 Migration Observatory – What is the Youth Mobility Scheme and how does it work? (archived) – Entry clearance visas granted outside the UK (archived page and spreadsheet, using tab Data_Vis_D02) Australian Department of Home Affairs – Visitor visa statistics (archived) Australian Department of Home Affairs – Working Holiday Maker visa program report (archived) New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – Migration data explorer (archived page and downloaded spreadsheet. To download the correct spreadsheet, instructions can be found at (archived): In dataset select 'W1 work decisions', in time period select 'calendar year' and in variables select 'application substream', 'application criteria' and 'decision type') Canadian data provided to PA news agency (archived) Madeleine Sumption profile (archived)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Bakery Barn to close Pleasant Hills factory, impacting 82 employees
Nutrition bar manufacturer Bakery Barn LLC will be shuttering its Pleasant Hills factory in the summer, leaving 82 employees out of work. The layoffs will begin Aug. 1 at its facility at 111 Terence Dr., Pleasant Hills, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) notice filed May 29 with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. 'Changing business needs require us to close this facility,' according to the WARN notice. Bakery Barn didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Click here to read more from our partners at the Pittsburgh Business Times. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
