UK commercial Public Service Broadcaster ITV has called for major pay-TV platforms to pay UK Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) fairly for the transmission of their channels, ending what is effectively a multi-million pound subsidy to Sky and Virgin.

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In the United States the ‘retransmission consent scheme’, which was introduced in 1992, means free-to-air broadcasters are paid for delivering content to competing platforms.

“The majority of viewing on these pay-TV platforms is PSB programming yet ITV, whether as producer or broadcaster investing in creating that content, doesn’t receive any payment – despite the fact that pay-TV platforms pay commercial terms for other channels. The impact of this wholly outdated regime is that UK Public Service Broadcasters are forced to subsidise major pay-TV platforms. In today’s highly competitive media marketplace that is simply wrong – and to the detriment not just of the PSBs, but the consumer and the wider UK creative economy.”