New BBC director-general Matt Brittin has revealed the broadcaster is in talks with Channel 4 about a possible joint streaming service.
Brittin spoke about a “sovereign platform” that could rival the tech giants during an appearance in front of the UK’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
“We have had an approach and have had a discussion with Channel 4,” he said. “In the world of the ITV-Sky merger, Channel 4 looks very sub-scale. All of these mergers are driven by the need to have scale. One opportunity for them would be in partnership with the BBC, having content on iPlayer, but continuing to be ad-funded.
“There are [sic] an array of commercial, audience, public service, and technical issues, but what we’ll do is explore that as quickly as we are able, because I think that’s something that’s going to be important for public service media,” he added.
“This is a moment of real jeopardy because of the scale and because of the influence of a handful of US and Chinese tech players [which] will dominate the creation and distribution of content.”
Brittin’s comments follow this week’s news of Sky’s acquisition of ITV’s linear channels and streaming service ITVX.
Back in 2024, rumours of a possible merger between the BBC and Channel 4 emerged. At the time, it was thought Channel 4 would continue to operate as a separate entity under BBC Studios, similar to how the BBC owns UKTV.
However, both broadcasters said that the discussions wouldn’t go any further.
