\n\tThe bosses of the UK\u2019s public service broadcasters have all eschewed the idea that they would be better off if they merged to compete with the likes of Netflix and YouTube.<\/p>\n
\n\tSpeaking at the Royal Television Society\u2019s Cambridge Convention, the heads of the BBC<\/a>, ITV<\/a>, Channel 4<\/a>, and Paramount<\/a> (owner of Channel 5) said that consolidation would harm the UK television industry, reducing choice for viewers and the number of content buyers in the market.<\/p>\n \n\tTheir comments come after the UK government said it wants to make it easier for legacy broadcasters to consolidate and partner up<\/a>. Ministers have tasked the Competition & Markets Authority and regulator Ofcom<\/a> to compile a review that will \u201cset out how changes in the sector \u2013 such as the convergence of broadcast, on-demand and video sharing \u2013 could be taken into account as part of any future assessment of television and advertising markets.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBBC director general Tim Davie said \u201cmultiple buying points\u201d were \u201creally helpful\u201d for the UK\u2019s successful production sector. \u201cI\u2019m not sure that [consolidation] is good for the UK ecosystem,\u201d Davie said, adding that he was uncertain whether he needs more \u201clinear real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSarah Rose, the outgoing UK regional lead of Paramount, said rivalry between British broadcasters was fundamental to the health of the industry. \u201cWe cater to audiences with a plurality of voices. If you go to a single buying point on a single channel \u2026 it would be much harder to defend the ecosystem that we are so keen to protect,\u201d Rose said.<\/p>\n \n\tITV CEO Carolyn McCall said mergers would involve a dramatic rethinking of business models, which would be difficult without significant government intervention. ITV is listed, the BBC is funded by the British public, Channel 4 is owned by the government, and Channel 5 is backed by a U.S. studio.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen the government talks about consolidation in our industry, they don\u2019t really mean, I don\u2019t think, between PSBs [public service broadcasters], they mean collaboration,\u201d McCall said. Jonathan Allan, interim CEO of Channel 4, added that \u201cstrong independent brands\u201d matter.<\/p>\n \n\tThe broadcasting chiefs did acknowledge that there were opportunities to partner, including potentially pooling advertising sales houses and sharing technology. Davie said the BBC would consider opening up iPlayer on the right terms for the streaming service that launched in the same year as Netflix.<\/p>\n \n\tMessage On Tax Breaks: \u201cJust Do It\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tElsewhere during the session, chaired by BBC presenter Amol Rajan, the broadcasters all urged the government to extend the UK\u2019s tax breaks scheme. \u201cJust do it,\u201d said McCall, who stressed that it was a \u201cno-brainer\u201d in terms of boosting productions and industry jobs at a time when series are sitting on the shelf amid a funding crisis.<\/p>\n \n\tShe continued: \u201cThere are a whole load of shows currently that are greenlit; they\u2019ve been commissioned, but the funding is not in place for these shows. So you\u2019ve got to find a way of being able to produce those shows economically.\u201d Davie added that it is a \u201cflipping competitive market\u201d and the UK was at risk of getting left behind other countries offering tax breaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bosses of the UK\u2019s public service broadcasters have all eschewed the idea that they would be better…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":236488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[6531,38387,171,40006,63296,15329,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-236487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-channel-4","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-itv","12":"tag-ofcom","13":"tag-paramount","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115225641874891985","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}