Anti-BBC campaigners are wrong to celebrate the rise of Netflix

I am sympathetic to many of the complaints levelled against the BBC. But why those who wish to ‘defund’ the corporation cheer on the rise of Netflix and the like is beyond me.

I am sympathetic to many of the complaints levelled against the BBC. But why those who wish to ‘defund’ the corporation cheer on the rise of Netflix and the like is beyond me.

The BBC is bad in many ways, but on almost every level, these US platforms — the number of subscriptions to which have risen dramatically during Government-imposed lockdowns — are worse.

They care even less — if at all — about British culture, and are even more depraved in the way of morality. Cuties — a Netflix series in which young children are celebrated for acting well above their age (to put it politely) — serves as a good example of the latter.

The controversy over Netflix’s highly disrespectful series The Crown also sows that if the platform is answerable to anybody, it certainly isn’t to us.

As far as replacements for the BBC go, US entertainment platforms leave much to be desired. Conservatives would do well to remember the old dictum, all good things are easily destroyed, but are never so to rebuild.