The British Broadcasting Corporation and Britain’s main commercial public service broadcaster Channel 4 have discussed the possibility of a streaming-focused partnership in order to better compete against foreign-owned streaming services.
Those discussions were revealed this week by BBC Director-General Matt Brittin during an appearance before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which focused on the BBC’s broader efforts to sustain itself at a time when its long-term domestic revenue pipelines face challenges.
Brittin said the conversations pre-dated Comcast’s announcement that its subsidiary business
Sky Group reached a deal to acquire the linear channels and streaming platforms of ITV, one of the country’s other public service broadcasters,
for more than $2.1 billion.
“We have had an approach and have had a discussion with Channel 4,” Brittin told lawmakers this week. “In the world of the ITV-Sky merger,
Channel 4 looks very sub-scale.”
thedesk.net