Mark Thompson warns firms such as
Netflix will dominate media unless government acts
The former
BBC director general Mark Thompson believes the
UK is facing “a total loss of culture sovereignty” which will leave the country increasingly divided unless the government acts now to fund public service journalism and stop US companies such as Netflix from dominating the media landscape.
Thompson left the BBC in 2012 to become chief executive of the
New York Times, where he has helped turn the once-struggling newspaper into a digital success. He suggests that unless viewers recognise “your language, your life experience, your community in the prevailing culture” then they lose their sense of individual and collective agency, which plays into issues such as Brexit.