UK culture minister John Whittingdale has warned streaming platforms they could face regulation similar to traditional broadcasters.
Speaking during a DCMS parliamentary committee meeting, Whittingdale said, “UK traditional broadcasters are subject to quite stringent requirements… and then you have the video on demand services, which are really subject to no regulation or requirements at all.
“That is something that is quite a stark difference. Whether or not we would want to look at having some kind of basic requirements on the video on demand services is something which I think the government might well think about.”
Regulation has long been a stick the UK government has waved at the big streamers. Last year, both the DCMS and its parliamentary committee were threatening to “do something” on the issue.
Netflix introduced a new algorithm based on its tags (such as violence and swearing) to apply age classifications to all films and TV shows on the platform.
