Channel 4 has approached Emap with a view to taking full control of its suite of music channels including The Hits and Kiss. According to The Times, Channel 4 approached Emap asking for a price on the remainder of Emap’s music television division in which it purchased a 50% stake for £28 million (€37.5m) last July. It seems unlikely that Channel 4 would pay as much again for the remainder of the company.
Although Channel 4 offers a significant amount of music coverage there may be another reason for its interest, given the opening up of the Sky platform to channel trading, as a result of technical pressures on the Sky platform. Channel 4 has already purchased the EPG slots belonging to Life TV.
While the BBC has come in for criticism over the purchase of the Lonely Planet guidebooks, by its commercial division, Channel 4’s entrance into the music TV business has gone largely unnoticed. Although commercially funded, Channel 4 is a public corporation, and has pleased poverty over the payment of digital TV costs that will be funded out of the BBC licence fee.
