Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of Netflix’s loss of 200,000 subscribers and more than 35 per cent fall in market value in the first quarter of 2022 compared with Channel 4’s streaming growth of 23 per cent in 2021.

Netflix’s first quarter results for 2022 saw overall subscriber numbers decline for the first time in many years. The company put this down to a number of factors including increased competition from new streaming services.

These results highlight the ever more competitive environment that even well-funded global players face.

Though Channel 4 has been reporting strong digital growth, its current ownership and operating model constrain its ability to respond to these market dynamics. The Government believes that having greater access to capital under private ownership and the ability to produce and sell its own content will give Channel 4 the best range of tools to succeed for decades to come.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has consulted with Cabinet colleagues on their decision to pursue a change of Channel 4’s ownership model. The Government will set out the future plan for Channel 4 in a White Paper shortly.