\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSony Pictures Television\u2018s president has made an impassioned plea to the new leaders of the BBC and Channel 4 to form an alliance that would reshape the UK\u2019s television industry.<\/p>\n
\n\tWayne Garvie, the outspoken British executive who oversees a content empire that includes The Crown<\/em> and Industry<\/em>, argued that Channel 4 should become the \u201cde facto commercial arm\u201d of the BBC to help the two organizations compete with the likes of YouTube and TikTok.<\/p>\n \n\tHe appealed to Matt Brittin, the incoming director general of the BBC, and new Channel 4 CEO Priya Dogra to seize the moment of fresh leadership and confront the \u201ccrisis\u201d of fragmented viewing and cratering ad sales that could make British broadcasters a \u201cweak field of has-beens.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey come with none of the public service baggage that\u2019s held other people back. They need to come together and work out a shared solution to the problems,\u201d Garvie told the Creative Cities Convention in Liverpool. \u201cThere is a world in which they can come together and retain a different, independent Channel 4, with Channel 4, the de facto commercial arm of the BBC, running the [commercial] channels and BBC Studios. That way we can realign our public service broadcasting and protect it for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe continued: \u201cI genuinely think that there is a crisis here, and we can spend a lot of time thinking about it, but you need to get on and do it, because the world is changing so quickly, and the normal speed of change within British broadcasting is so slow that the game could be over.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tGarvie stressed that it would be important to keep a \u201cseparate identity\u201d for Channel 4, but said change was unavoidable. \u201cYou\u2019ve got two leaders who have got to think differently, and they\u2019ve got to act quickly,\u201d the Sony chief added.<\/p>\n \n\tGarvie\u2019s vision could be dead on arrival, however. Speaking from the same Creative Cities stage on Wednesday, Channel 4 boss Dogra poured cold water on the idea of a merger with the BBC. She said it would result in Channel 4 being absorbed by the BBC, leading to the loss of its editorial voice. \u201cThat would be a loss to society, [and] a real loss for the creative economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\tThe mooted merger has been a source of industry speculation for years. The British government has fanned the flames of this conversation,\u00a0tasking the UK\u2019s Competition & Markets Authority and regulator Ofcom to review\u00a0how consolidation could change the industry.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring his \u201cwake-up\u201d address at Creative Cities, Garvie also reflected on the growing creator economy and its impact on traditional television. \u201cThe cottage industry that is digital content creation is transforming the industrial process of television, and if you do not understand that and try to adapt to it and interact with it, you are \u2026 living with delusion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n