Netflix has grown rapidly this century to a turnover of around $40 bn, more than five times the turnover of the BBC in the UK and worldwide. Netflix’s market value is an extraordinary $425 bn reflecting market views that this company has stellar growth ahead.
Netflix has now launched a bid to acquire most of Warner with its great back list of films and franchises. Many UK consumers go to see Warner films and pay for Netflix subscriptions. The UK has great talent and has some studio capacity, but the future of our entertainment increasingly rests in US hands and is being determined by US companies.
The UK is failing to keep up or to provide any large company competitive challenge to the US majors including Comcast, Netflix, Warner, Amazon, Apple, Disney. The UK is held back by two major impediments.
The first is the institutional arrogance and lack of world drive at the BBC. The licence fee becomes a tourniquet constraining investment in new technology and global expansion. BBC Commercial, non UK BBC, is a pathetically tiny £2 bn outfit in a world of giants. It should be offered more freedom and should raise substantial money on the London Stock Exchange to grow the business and get up to date.
The second is the raft of rules and taxes, many of them stemming from past EU membership, that impedes or deters setting up and growing new media businesses from a UK base.
As government dithers or ignores the failure of policy, UK media consumers spend more with US companies and sign up to more US content and services . The UK politicians and media debate how to regulate the US and think our traditional offerings are still fine and central to our media world. They should ask more UK families why Netflix and Disney, Apple and Amazon are what they want.
December 7, 2025
Netflix has also beaten Hollywood as well as terrestrial TV companies like the BBC.
All this from a company that started out as a DVD rental service.
Netflix do not offer news, regular sport, quizzes, game shows. Youngsters are less interested in traditional TV channels. The BBC is increasingly irrelevant to consumers. However, UK polticians value it as an establishment mouthpiece.
December 7, 2025
It’s a shame really i watch catchup on itv3, more4 and 5, occasionally Netflix or Amazon. We produce world class programmes which should be good revenue earners worldwide.
I have no time for 90% of American so called Blockbusters and I think this applies to the majority of my cohort in the uk.
I really do think the BBC should be a subscription service and part of the Virgin or Sky package with the news being the only thing tax funded.
None of the EU countries or indeed the rest of the world has produced anything like Netflix because there isn’t the talent for it.
I think British TV is vastly superior to the USA drivel and I think it should stay that way.
December 7, 2025
The BBC is beyond redemption in its current business model. That model supports, in effect, a self serving, self perpetuating oligarchy with it’s own world view. That world view seeks to impose itself on its viewers and listeners through strict editorial control of all it’s main channels from politics to science to drama to comedy. If you do not confirm you are unlikely to be heard or seen by listeners and viewers. You are cancelled. Sir John knows this all too well. It was all too evident in the editorial splicing of Trump’s speech and how slow the BBC has been to respond to criticisms.