Yes, traditional TV is under threat – but cracking down on streaming isn’t the answer

I wonder if the government’s chief culture warrior Oliver Dowden has ever heard of DanTDM.

The culture secretary’s bio says he’s got a couple of kids. That being the case, and if he can find a slot for them in the inevitably busy schedule of a minister in a chaotic government run by an immoral chancer, it’s possible that he’s heard of the YouTube superstar.

For those who’ve never come across him, he’s from Northamptonshire and he produces gaming related videos. He boasts 25 million subscribers, sold out arenas when things called tours were allowed, and has amassed a considerable fortune through so doing.

My daughter often has him on in the background while she’s playing Minecraft. He also makes her laugh. That, combined with the inoffensive nature of what he does, makes him alright in my book, even if I find his appeal hard to understand.

The reason I mention Dan is because neither my daughter, nor my son, watch much, if any, traditional TV. They’re not great consumers of Netflix either. They prefer him, or one of his peers.

Which brings us to Mr Dowden’s cunning plan (yes, that’s a Baldrick reference) to “boost Britain’s broadcasters and protect viewers on video-on-demand channels”.

The consultation he’s announced includes, among other things, plans to privatise Channel 4, making sure that it, ITV and the Beeb have a “prominent” position on smart TVs. It will also give Ofcom the power to regulate Netflix and co, so it can wag its finger the next time it or one or the other of them tweaks the history books to make something like The Crown more entertaining. As if the makers of previous TV shows and/or films based on historical events have never done that.

I have to confess, having read the announcement and considered my family’s, and especially my children’s, preferences and viewing habits, it all looks a bit dated. An attempt by analogue people to make sense of the digital broadcasting world.

True, as one of the broadcasters I speak to is usually at pains to point out, not every family is like my family. While streaming renders the broadcast schedule irrelevant, there are a lot of people out there who still watch trad television. Not everyone has Netflix (although it’s now approaching half of UK households and Disney+ is growing awfully fast). The Beeb and ITV are currently basking in the glow of the mass audiences delivered by the Euros. Love Island continues to be talked about. They all have the capacity to deliver dramas and other content that captures eyeballs when they want to.

But it’s the trends you need to watch, and not just what people watch but the way they watch it. They’re moving a lot faster than Mr Dowden is.

Personally, I find it hard to understand how my kids can play computer games while having YouTube running on a phone or a tablet. I would find that profoundly off-putting, especially with some of the faster moving games my son plays. But to him and his friends, it’s completely natural and the sort of TV the government says it’s worried about is basically irrelevant.

A prominent position for the BBC iPlayer app and its peers on smart TVs might do just as well as securing the position of BBC One, ITV and Channel 4 in a line-up of channels. But even then … And what about the tablets or computers that people use to watch what we used to describe as telly?

If you set aside Dowden’s dismal culture war crap, which I imagine comes from his boss, the idea of nurturing Britain’s public service broadcasting is still one I can get behind, although I’m not sure how privatising Channel 4 helps that in the slightest, particularly if the end result is it getting swallowed up by some gigantic US media conglomerate.

But people are ultimately going to watch what they want to watch, and they’re going to watch it in the way they feel comfortable watching it, and no amount of protective measures are going to help with that.

It would be a great shame if British public service broadcasting got swallowed up by the e-tide and think it remains possible for the public service broadcasters to find a way to thrive amidst all this.

But what they really need to equip them to do that is firstly investment, and that means heavy investment that allows for the occasional failure, combined with the sort of arms length support this government doesn’t seem overly keen on providing. Pity.