Call to MPs to save public service broadcasting in face of US giants
MPS MUST “act now” to secure Britain’s public service broadcasting against competition from global giants like Netflix, ITV’s chief executive has said.
Dame Carolyn McCall cited long-running ITV soap Coronation Street as a gem of public service television, saying it is “unapologetically about our lives”.
She called for politicians to make “big changes” to broadcasting regulation, amid the new, “shiny world” of the US streaming box set. “In December, Coronation Street will mark 60 years portraying the lives of a fictional community in urban Manchester,” Dame Carolyn said.
“The stories it tells, and the accent it tells them in, are not much seen or heard on British TV. This is not the shiny world of an American streaming box set. It is unapologetically about our lives, our culture, our issues and concerns. It tackles important, sometimes controversial, social issues – from
childhood vaccinations to money-lending.”
While Netflix show Sex Education is “terrific”, it is “designed to look like a US high school, with American footballs thrown around the playground,” she added, saying the hit is set in a “fictitious nowhere”.
The chief executive said ITV spends £300m every year on programme-making outside London, sustaining “big operations in Cardiff, Leeds and MediaCityUK in Salford and Trafford”. Dame Carolyn cited the contribution of public service broadcasting “to the health of our democracy”.