Clarkson Calls for 'Britflix' Merger of Britain's Five Main Broadcasters

Jeremy Clarkson called for the BBC, ITV, Sky, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to merge into a single “Britflix” platform to survive, in remarks made at the RTS London convention on 29 September 2026. The Guardian

Clarkson said competition from streamers and YouTube meant Britain’s broadcasters should make “bigger, fewer, better programmes” rather than attempt to compete separately for scale and attention. He named all five principal domestic broadcasters as parties to the proposed combination.

He also addressed the future of the BBC’s funding and structure. Clarkson said BBC News should be separated and funded through the licence fee. That position follows an earlier call in January for the BBC to scrap the licence fee, reported at the time. The Sun

The timing was pointed. Sky has announced a £1.6bn deal to buy ITV’s broadcasting and streaming arm. Channel 4 has announced plans to cut 340 jobs before the end of the year. Both developments were cited in the same convention coverage as signs of pressure on domestic linear and streaming operations.

Clarkson spoke as a former Top Gear and Grand Tour host now working principally in streaming. He said he had just finished filming the sixth season of Clarkson’s Farm for Amazon Prime. He is also working on a new show described as “unbelievably ambitious.” Deadline

The broader context here is consolidation as a response to fragmentation. A single domestic platform would pool commissioning budgets, technology costs and rights libraries. It would also collapse very different ownership models, funding mechanisms and public-service obligations into one vehicle.

Looking at what this means for commissioning, the logic of fewer, larger bets is familiar to anyone who works in the current market. Streamers and YouTube have altered both viewing habits and cost expectations. Fewer titles with higher per-hour spend can travel better internationally. They also leave less room for risk, regional supply and the mid-range factual and entertainment slate that British broadcasters have traditionally sustained.

In my view, the proposal raises as many structural questions as it answers. Combining licence-fee-funded news with advertising-funded and subscription-funded entertainment would require a settlement on governance, competition and editorial independence. Retaining BBC News as a separately funded unit points to that difficulty. It preserves the principle of a universally funded news service while allowing entertainment to seek commercial scale.

Whether consolidation takes the form Clarkson described or proceeds through piecemeal deals and cost reduction is still an open question for executives and policymakers. The Sky-ITV transaction and the Channel 4 cuts suggest the direction of travel is toward fewer owners and leaner organisations. A full five-way merger would be a political as well as commercial undertaking.