How can traditional British TV survive the US streaming giants

Just before Christmas, in a private dining room in the upmarket Charlotte Street Hotel in the heart of London's Fitzrovia area, the BBC's director general gathered some of the UK's leading TV creatives and executives for lunch. As they ate, surrounded by kaleidoscopic-patterned wallpaper and giant artworks, they were also chewing over the future survival of their own industry. As solutions were thrown around to what many see as an acute funding crisis in the age of global streaming, one of the invitees suggested, in passing, that BBC Studios (the corporation's commercial content-producing arm) could merge with Channel 4 to create a bigger, more powerful force to compete with the likes of Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon. As another diner knocked down the idea, I'm told that Tim Davie, the BBC's DG, asked why it was so ridiculous. I relate that not because it has come to fruition. It hasn't. Nor even to suggest that the Director General supports the idea. Instead the story illustrate ... Read full article.