The United Kingdom is launching an update of its audiovisual field law on topics that are sure to resonate on this side of the channel. In addition to facilitating the much-controversial privatization of Channel 4, it aims to give the major traditional public and private media the means to compete with platforms or players in subscription video (SVOD) such as Netflix. A white paper has been published that should result in legislation by the end of the year or early 2023, the government hopes. The last major improvement is from 2003.

Nadine Dorries’s Ministry of Culture first wants to subject SVoD to the same controls (and fines) as traditional media over problematic content (hateful, racist, obscene, scientifically misleading or medical, etc.). “It is quite logical to expand the Ofcom system” [le régulateur britannique, NDLR] That applies to other media and to YouTube already, explains Alice Anders, sector specialist at Anders Analysis. That said, platforms already avoid this type of problem a lot. ,