Why the BBC should not be on YouTube

Spoiler Alert: Monopoly

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There is a for UK broadcasters to move content onto YouTube.

The promise is that leveraging YouTube’s unrivalled distribution leads to increased viewership and revenues.

By the end of this article, you should understand why the move to YouTube is a sugar rush high toward a destructive long-term future for UK broadcasters.

More importantly - I’ll show you the alternative.

First, recognise people are at the limits of consuming video content. When , Chairman of Netflix, noted ‘our biggest competitor is sleep’ in 2017, it was nothing compared to today’s maelstrom of content.

The question is not how to get people to watch more, but finding out where those eyeballs are already.

In the UK:

• Some watch BBC iPlayer — a closed ecosystem built to . IPlayer is because of the limited amount of content vs platforms like YouTube or Netflix.
• Others watch ITVX, Channel4, U — all applications signposted through services like Freely, or they watch paid apps like Netflix, Disney, Apple+ and many more.
• Most viewers use a mix of a few.