BBC DG Tim Davie has said quality TV should “not be about the person who can pay the biggest check” as British broadcasting chiefs gathered for the launch of free streaming service Freely.
Davie, Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon and ITV boss Carolyn McCall were present at last night’s London launch of the service that will for the first time deliver live television over broadband, which is run by Freeview operator Everyone TV.
Each broadcasting chief made an impassioned speech about the power of free TV, with Davie saying: “If you want to keep a society together, it’s having free access to these services, where prominence is not about the person who can pay the biggest check.”
“This group is unique in the world,” he added. “We talk ourselves down as a country too often, but we are market leaders in this.”
McCall, meanwhile, said there is a “really big demand for British content compared to the streamers,” noting that the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Disney would “never have made” smash ITV drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office “or a lot of shows we do that are public service.” “They can be big hits but they are still public service,” she added.
Mahon said people in “France, Germany and other countries want to know how we’re doing this, they want to bring [platforms like Freely] to their audiences there.” She was speaking a few months after the boss of French commercial net M6 said British broadcasters had “shown us the way” with Freely.
“The UK PSB VOD players are growing, the growth rates this year are off the charts and that’s really important,” added Mahon. “That is a sign of audience demand for particularly British content… In the battle for truth, that is the key thing that we must deliver.”
The trio were speaking a few weeks after the long-gestating Media Bill, which improves prominence of public service TV, was rushed through parliament before it was dissolved for the general election.
Freely has already struck distribution deals with a number of smart TVs and the first iterations are available on Bush and Hisense 2024 4K smart TV models. Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic and Metz are all confirmed to offer the new streaming service.
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