Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, other streaming services should legally share viewing data of UK shows, say lawmakers

OTT platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video should legally share viewing data of UK shows with the local public service broadcasters and government-approved media regulatory authority (Ofcom), reports Deadline.

Lawmakers said that broadcasters and channels had a right to now how the shows they had originally commissioned, now available on streamers, are performing. British Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMSC) in a report, stated that online viewing data would allow a complete analysis of public service broadcasting reach.

There are nearly 1,276 hours of BBC, ITV, and other public service broadcaster content is in stock with Netflix itself. Moreover, youngsters, today, for example, are likely to watch BBC content on OTT platforms rather than on BBC iPlayer, the report says.

The report adds that in adherence with updated media laws, streamers should label and brand British content with logos of the respective broadcaster from which it originated.

However, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have raised discontent against the move, claiming that if contents are to be shared in such a manner it would become commercially sensitive, an opinion to which the Committee has disagreed.