Mission Critical: U.K. Broadcasters Talk Survival in Face of Global Streamers

The growing popularity, backed by financial clout, of global streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus are forcing U.K. public service broadcasters (PSBs) to face down an existential threat.

This was the overarching theme at the virtual Deloitte and Enders Media and Telecoms conference, which featured top brass from the country’s technology, media and telecom sectors. These included BBC director general Tim Davie, ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall, Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon, and Maria Kyriacou, president of ViacomCBS Networks U.K. and Australia, which operates terrestrial broadcaster Channel 5.

Before the pandemic hit, the U.K. creative industry was going through a period of phenomenal growth, but is now confronting “a point of jeopardy,” said Davie at the conference. “It’s a brilliant British success story and it needs fuelling and [investment].” Describing the sector as an “enlightened blend of the private and public,” Davie said it has to be fought for and protected.

“The government are proactive on this, which is a situation in which we can ensure that there’s the right prominence in new environments for public service broadcasters,” said Davie. “That is critical. It protects local creative work.”

McCall said the PSBs need a level playing field to operate in. The urgent need for the government to change the framework for PSBs “is because this is a contract with broadcasters to deliver a public good, one that is going to be dramatically eroded because [of] the ferocious pace of digital change, we have all seen,” said McCall.

The PSBs operate under the Communications Act of 2003, a legislation that needs a “radical update,” said McCall. “There has been a digital online revolution, but we still have an analog regulatory framework for media,” she outlined.

“If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it is that people value the programs the PSBs offer. A key part of the government’s ‘building back better’ agenda would be to create a framework for a new PSB system that can continue to serve the public interest in the U.K., as well as helping to underpin a creative economy that creates opportunities,” said McCall.