The BBC and Channel 4 are in talks with regards to combining their streaming services, so says new director-general Matt Brittin, talking to the Parliamentary culture committee.

Brittin called for a British “sovereign platform” to compete with US giants like Netflix and Disney+. He said the BBC had “an approach and a conversation” with Channel 4, which could see the smaller public service broadcaster join forces with the BBC’s iPlayer.

“We have had an approach and have had a discussion with Channel 4,” said Brittin. “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 in partnership with the BBC, having content on iPlayer, but continuing to be ad-funded,” reported FT.

Brittin said there was “an array of commercial, audience, public service and technical issues” but that the prospect of this tie-up would be explored “as quickly as we’re 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,” he continued.

Brittin 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 corporation, criticising the existing regime as “yesterday’s model, it’s a busted flush, it’s no longer fit for purpose”.

Brittin said 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”.

Under a “streamer levy”, he said, “if you watch Netflix, arguably YouTube, TikTok, any other streamer, you would pay. I think that’s compelling in terms of extending it to reflect the reality of today’s audiences.”

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Tags: BBC, Channel 4, iPlayer, Licence fee, Matt Brittin