Amazon may move to screen major news events

AMAZON has hinted it could broadcast events of “national importance” as MPS questioned whether it posed a threat to the BBC.

The tech giant said it was prepared to move into any area of broadcasting if it felt viewers were not “being served”.

However, its TV executives also expressed fears for the future of the BBC, saying it would be a “huge shame” if it was left diminished by the rise of media streaming giants.

The comments came as its executives Georgia Brown and Chris Bird appeared before the culture select committee yesterday. The online giant has been making increasing inroads into original programme making and has produced 20 titles jointly with the BBC, including the hit comedy Fleabag.

In recent years, it has bought rights to huge sporting events, including Premier League football matches and ATP Tennis. Asked if Amazon had designs on

‘It feels like there is an inherent negativity sometimes around the output, what they are doing’

broadcasting “events of national importance”, Ms Brown said: “I think we would always look at any genre we thought was under-served.”

However, she said children’s programmes and news were currently not on Amazon’s “road map”.

The executives said they were unable to tell MPS how many people in the UK were signed up to Amazon’s streaming service and denied it was “creamingoff ” the best programmes from the BBC and other British broadcasters.

Ms Brown, a former commercial manager at the BBC who described herself as a “habitual viewer of the BBC’S output”, told MPS it was “really important to protect” the corporation’s role in original programming i n the new streaming era. “For me personally I think it would be a huge shame to the industry as a whole if their place was diminished,” she said.

Asked who she thought the BBC needed protecting from, Ms Brown replied: “It feels like there is an inherent negativity sometimes around the output, what they are doing.”