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
British TV
December 7, 2025
There was a time when UK TV was “vastly superior to the USA drivel”but those days are long gone. For example USA sitcoms have been better than anything the BBC has firmed out for the last 30 years. That is network USA TV. Obviously if you include HBO, Netflix etc. then USA dramas are generally superior too.
December 7, 2025
Why should the British taxpayer fund the biased BBC’s state propaganda output? I don’t want my hard-earned money going to any of those overpaid traitors who have helped destroy our country.
December 7, 2025
Yes it makes no sense. We have the creative capability to produce great output, and actually outdo Netflix. Weirdly, we have a government which pays people to sit and home and watch it. So how much taxpayers’ cash goes via the benefits system into Netflix and other US media companies?
Really the BBC should, and hopefully will, be left to dangle as a left wing outfit which eventually runs out of cash. Perhaps the UK equivalent of Voice of America?
December 7, 2025
I do not think I will be buying Netflix shares at a PE of circa x 40 but rather cheaper than Tesla at over x 313 trailing looks mad to me.
So much choice with podcasts, audible books, youtube, Prime, Netflix, digital radio, GBNews, Talk TV, spotify, apple Mogg, David Starkey, Johnredwood.com, the spectator tv and podcast (under the rather socialist lockdown and net zero fan Gove), The Telegraph and podcasts,… how much time do people have left to watch or listen to all these things?
I would rather go for a walk, do the garden, a bit of work etc. and just listen myself. You get less fat that way and get things done!
December 7, 2025
We have never had a free market in broadcast media.
However, things are changing.
Instead of the British people being fed a diet of propaganda by the BBC and being sold lines like “British broadcasting is the best in the world” or “the Americans don’t have a sense of humour”, we are now experiencing something closer to a free market from the internet.
We are starting to get nearer to plural media where the People can vote with their feet. The BBC hates losing the power they used to yield over the country but that is what is happening as viewers and listeners go elsewhere.
Rather than starting to run tv and radio shows that people actual want, the BBC is instead running campaigns against “misinformation” or “fake news”, ironically forgetting that it has been serving its own flavour of life to us for nearly a century and, for about the last 50 years, has been radicalising many of us with its lefty – and often extreme- propaganda.
We get a better reflection of real life by taking an aggregate of plural media rather than listening to a highly regulated sector with a limited (and often extreme) point of view,.
I don’t think the BBC needs to be encouraged to go to the market to borrow to expand. There will be plenty others who could do a better job of it once the stifling regulations are removed.
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.
December 7, 2025
I get value from the BBC we have five people in the house most of the time. For me just their old programmes and radio 3 and 4 is worth it alone. I do however resent their absurd political agenda. They are profoundly wrong on Trump, on Net Zero/climate alarmism/energy, on left economics, on Israel, on doom loop economics and the size of the state, on the vast net harm done by the Covid lockdowns and Vaccines…
My wife even watches Strictly which I avoid. Mogg lets us he turned it down as he has two left feet (rather handist or footist of him or sinister of him). Left footed footballers and left handed sports people are over represented in most sports over the so called “dextrous”. It is around 26-27% in elite men’s football (Premier League/EFL) but very significantly fewer in women’s football (only around 12%).
December 7, 2025
You can of course listen to BBC radio without paying but for me just the Moral Maze, More or Less, the Early Music Show, Desert Island Discs, Private Passions, Life Scientific, Any Question, Start the week, Choral Evensong are worth the fee. Alas even these programmes are not immune from the dire BBC’s misguided politics and duff science!
December 7, 2025
Indeed. They are absurdly wrong politically on climate, energy, on Covid vaccines, on economics and the size of the state, on men in women’s sport, hugely anti-business and landlords and cars and trucks plus insanely woke and rather anti-real science!
But on the plus side they did run “A Bach Christmas” on BBC Radio in 2005, running continuously for ten days from December 16 to December 25. During this period, the station broadcast the entire surviving body of Johann Sebastian Bach’s work. Time to rerun this surely!
December 7, 2025
It’s too late for British media/broadcasters to challenge the US providers. They have no idea how to compete and the BBC’s Institutional Arrogance means it thinks it doesn’t have to.
The BBC assumes it will survive because the Establishment won’t let it sink, so it rolls out another (tedious) Nature Democracy fronted by a 95 yr old who once again lectures those still watching about “climate change” and thinks it has done a good job.
I have a piggy-back Netflix subscription on my son’s account which costs me £5 a month. But personally, I spend more time on YouTube than anything else and I don’t pay a penny for it.
December 7, 2025
The BBC reaches a weekly average of 450 million people worldwide, including about 90% of UK adults across television, radio, and online services -the vast majority of whom are happy to pay the licence fee.
The BBC has a global reputation for truthfully reporting newsworthy items, despite the never-ending “bias” campaigns undertaken by right-wing media and far-right populist politicians who should know better.
Who do you want to replace the BBC, if your objective of selling it off piecemeal by breaking it up succeeds? The parochial GB News, which can only muster ~90k daily viewers? GB News is not profitable and has sustained significant losses since its launch, with pre-tax losses for the year ending May 2024 at £33.4m!
How about the Telegraph? The paper has been up for sale for two years and is supported by investors from middle eastern oil states – with distinctly pro-fossil fuel, anti EV, anti net zero and anti-renewables propaganda a (boring) daily offering.
The BBC is doing an excellent job of promoting British culture globally. The number of American viewers/listeners is increasing each month. Time to back off and support our national British media champion for once
December 7, 2025
GB News is a new start up and has not been going for 100 years supported by tax payers whether they want it or not. Also, it is inhibited by the establishment in stopping advertising by the big brands in a form of cartel of the advertising agencies, which I would have thought verges on the illegal, so that’s why it is finding it hard to work, although in its short life it is already out performing BBC News and Sky News for viewers and at least they do try to be impartial, considering that most of the political class is afraid to go on there to argue their case. You seem keen on backing losers and fairy tale concepts.
December 7, 2025
The BBC mainly need to change their hugely misguided political agenda on woke lunacy, on the “grooming” rape gangs cover up, the net harm lockdowns and net have Covid Vaccines cover up, on the net zero lunacy on their open door to low skilled immigration and their lover of magic money tree lefty economics.
In the same way King Charles and Prince William need to get out of politics and shut up about their deluded and hugely hypocritical views on net zero and the war on plant food! Just smile and cut ribbons! Even if they were on the right side of the argument (they rarely are) they should still shut up!
December 7, 2025
BBC – too big to fail but we can hope
December 7, 2025
Having been an avid Sci-Fi fan since I could read, what I want is good sci-fi for a start. I used to watch programmes like Dr Who and Blakes 7 many decades ago and (for the time) they were quite good. Then Star Trek, Stargate and other US programmes came along but the Beeb & ITV weren’t making anything like that here. The current Dr Who is a a dreadful pantomine of the original series and I just can’t watch it.
I’m currently nearly through ‘The Expanse’ which is excellent sci-fi (I read the books some years ago) and of course there have been series like GoT, Wheel of Time & Rings of Power if you enjoy Fantasy. All expensive to make I’m sure but all global blockbusters that people are willing to pay for. The BBC costs me £14.50 a month and I don’t watch it.
December 7, 2025
After the latest ‘Question time’ debacle. The BBC really has lost the plot. It should now lose the licence fee (TV Tax)
December 7, 2025
UK renewables, particularly onshore wind and large-scale solar, are very cheap to build and operate (around £40-£50/MWh), significantly cheaper than new gas power. System costs for backup and grid balancing mean the overall price for consumers can be higher, though currently falling gas prices are improving the picture. Despite assertions to the contrary CfDs are bringing costs down, with wind and solar electricity increasingly displacing volatile gas generation in the European wholesale market.
Key Cost Factors
1) Low generation costs – new onshore wind and solar are among the cheapest sources of new power in the UK, with costs per MWh falling to £40-£50 for new projects.
2) No fuel costs – Renewables harvest free energy and have zero fuel costs (unlike gas), and carbon costs are also zero, making them stable in price.
3) The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme sets fixed prices, protecting consumers when gas prices spike. Early solar and wind farm installations generate juice that is priced according to the CFD regime under which they won their auctions. They are now paying huge sums back to the Treasury, as the price they get far exceeds their “support” CFD price.
4) Intermittency & system costs – Because wind and solar aren’t always available, they require gas backup and grid upgrades, adding costs for balancing and transmission – though these are decreasing.
5) New build gas CCGT – can be over £180/MWh, with high carbon tax costs and costs to connect to the grid.
6) System Integration – the costs of upgrading the grid are significant and do add to overall system costs.
7) Profit margins for the UK energy generation and distribution system are approaching 25% and add significantly to household energy bills
8) This year 2025 so far the UK has exported 9% of it’s renewable electricity, earning income for the Treasury and helping to keep costs down
In essence, the generation of renewable energy is very cheap, but the integration of that intermittent energy into the whole system does add complexity and cost. The long-term trend shows renewables making the UK energy system more resilient, secure and affordable by reducing reliance on volatile, inefficient and expensive fossil fuels.
Reply This is a very inaccurate account. Renewables are dear power for the UK with high guaranteed contract prices , high cost of gas back up and costs of extra grid.
December 7, 2025
Shouldn’t we be more concerned about finding ways for everyone to use their time productively, rather than sitting down watching TV?
December 7, 2025
Sir John, The UK’s place in the global entertainment business will never be defined by what the BBC does.
The BBC lost its position as a world renowned provider of entertainment about twenty years back and now is seen as nothing more than a sump for period dramas. They are even losing that following dubious casting of characters that were never actually present in those set drama’s period of time.
The Woke and PC fixation now dominant at the BBC will ensure it continues to lose influence and subscribers despite their latest effort to portray themselves as ‘Our BBC’ it would be fascinating to hear who exactly is included in their collective ‘our’?……
December 7, 2025
The UK Governments this century have fought of growth in all sectors this Century, other than the criminal invasion.
Parliament has colluded and contrived a wreaking ball to society and the people native to these Islands, every option to shut the UK down has been enacted. We no longer have a Parliament that is capable of doing its duty, defending the UK, growing the UK. Parliament is about fighting the people and personalities massaging their self-esteem and ego, not about working with, keeping us secure, resilient and creating a future.
We never get more the 10% of our representatives on the side of the Citizen, we have 90% engaged in ideology, clueless ideology
December 7, 2025
The problem with the BBC is that it clings to the outdated license fee system. It stops growth as its revenue is restricted to those living in the UK who are forced to pay for it. Meanwhile, the rest of the World watches it for free via VPNs. The UK has the best acting talent and is capable of producing excellent content, but fails to exploit this. I find most of the content on Netflix to be dire, and I waste hours trying to find anything decent to watch. British TV is far superior, but we never upscale like the Americans manage to achieve. Just like we don’t produce billionaires and entrepreneurs.
December 7, 2025
Sir John
You are flogging a ‘dead horse’ to dream the UK Parliament cares or is even interested, let alone its chosen Government. Its members are mostly off with the ‘fairies’ deluding themselves about ‘the cause’, about political ideology and about personal ego. They have yet to wake up and realise we live in a big competitive world where its ‘dog eats dog’ and the focus is on building futures, growing wealth to fund those futures. The UK parliament is about removing the wealth and our future from the UK. They are still fighting themselves being the Government of the UK and fighting taking responsibility. They want others preferably the unelected unaccountable to order them around – they are still fighting Brexit.
The big media World has infiltrated our media, our TV, Chanel 5, Sky are all US owned even a large chunk of the BBC actually comes from the a Dutch company Benijay NV.
December 7, 2025
Iniquitous and almost laughable that if you watch any live TV you are obliged to have a BBC licence. According to the Netflix website a live American Football game between Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders is being broadcast at our teatime on Christmas Day. Netflix indicates this will be available to watch on a mobile phone so could this create another bunch of UK criminals?