BBC and Channel 4 discuss streaming partnership

While speaking to MPs at the UK Parliament’s Culture Committee, Brittin said that the BBC had “an approach and a conversation” with fellow public service broadcaster Channel 4 about the plan.

News of the conversation came in the same week that Sky bought ITV, with a view to combining their digital offerings.

“We have had an approach and have had a discussion with Channel 4,” said Brittin, a former Google executive. “In the world of the ITV-Sky merger, Channel 4 looks very sub-scale. All of these mergers are driven by the need to have scale. One opportunity for them would be a partnership with the BBC, having content on iPlayer, but continuing to be ad-funded.”

Brittin, who took over from Tim Davie in May 2026, added: “There are an array of commercial, audience, public service, and technical issues, but what we’ll do is explore that as quickly as we are able, because I think that’s something that’s going to be important for public service media… This is a moment of real jeopardy because of the scale and because of the influence of a handful of US and Chinese tech players [which] will dominate the creation and distribution of content.”

The Director General also said that there was a “compelling” argument for making UK viewers of streaming services pay the licence fee to help raise money for the BBC, criticising the existing regime as “yesterday’s model, it’s a busted flush, [which is] no longer fit for purpose”.

Brittin added that the current licence fee was a “straitjacket” and that the BBC was “locked into yesterday’s model of consumption, the licence fee being payable on linear television and iPlayer when the world’s moved on”.

The BBC recently confirmed that it will cut around £160m from its operations by closing 550 roles across the news, nations, and content divisions by the start of 2027/28. Discover more here.