Netflix accuses BBC of ‘holding back’ UK licenses
Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos has accused the BBC of restricting UK licenses for its shows by as much as five years (for children’s content), forcing the streaming provider to look abroad for content.
The US based service says the corporation is effectively strangling home grown children’s shows at birth by holding them back for so long, forcing the video-on-demand provider to look to America instead to pad out its UK service.
This has seen Netflix switch its $2bn a year content budget to the likes of Turbo, a cartoon about a super-fast snail as well as homegrown content such as a remake of House of Cards and a new series of Arrested Development.
Sarandos said: "We could pay a lot of money to license that programming, and they could make more programming and make the BBC a better public service product. What is amazing is we have the ability to give an even larger global footprint to BBC content but I don't want to sit behind that big blackout window."
“The money I [would] be spending in the UK on homegrown product I have to spend on US imports because they are not making that content, the more attractive programming, available in the current windows.”
"It is a huge mistake – kids' brands are very short life cycles and I'm not willing to pay anything for those things five years later. The best commercial decision possible is to license content while it has a shelf life."
A BBC spokesperson responded: “… while the BBC's windowing policy means that most children's programming remains available to UK licence fee payers through the CBeebies and CBBC channels ahead of any commercial video-on-demand services, we have provided Netflix with such popular series as Charlie & Lola, MI High and The Sarah Jane Adventures."