Money off the screen .
I AM sad that Channel 4 cannot afford to keep Business Daily on the air. It was my cue for opining on Fridays — looming out of your television screen to call the Abbey National shareholders greedy pigs, or urging the Government to bring its moral- ity up to City standards. This apart, Busi- ness Daily gave television what its news programmes have never had: the qualities of a good City page. Channel 4, however, is stretched for money. Though London is awash with empty offices at giveaway rents, Channel 4 has paid £22 million for two acres of land in London SW1, to build itself what it calls a landmark head office. This is now estimated to cost another £38 million. A valuable asset for Channel 4, says Sir Richard Attenborough, its chair- man — and all it will then have to do is to pay off its banks. Which banks does it choose to do business with? Well, we now know that it had £5 million on deposit with BCCI. If Channel 4 had thought to take advice from its contributors, it could have saved itself enough money to save their programme.
Previous page
