David Abraham calls for major British tech play to safeguard PSM

David Abraham has challenged the government and the PSBs to harness the talents of Britain’s engineers and tech developers to reinvent how UK audiences watch content – or risk being at the mercy of Big Tech.

In a paper written for the House of Lords and MPs, the former Channel 4 chief executive-turned-Wonderhood Studios founder argues that: without a major, joined up intervention, British television risks “ceding control of distribution, measurement and monetisation to US players”.

Writing in an independent, personal capacity, Abraham argues that the some of the billions of pounds being invested by the UK government on tech and AI projects should be targeted on the creation of a new broadcasting ecosystem that allows public service content to flourish – a new Public Service Media Gateway (PSMG).

“Pulling up the drawbridge and trying to force Big Tech platforms to play by our rules isn’t going to work, Abraham told Broadcast.

“We might not be able to describe quite what a PSMC will look like at present – but we can write a brief: the creation of a new and innovative ecosystem that makes British content easily accessible and discoverable to audiences and monetisable on our own terms.”

He is urging the BBC and the commercial PSBs to embrace a new level of partnership and work closely with the government, national R&D funds, Ofcom, the ISPs and academia to set out to find a genuinely ambitious national solution.

“This needs to be about much more than just the BBC sharing iPlayer,” Abraham said. “It’s about the UK’s global standing in media and the importance of television and the wider creative industries in the British economy.

“History tells us that British innovation in broadcasting technology can be globally consequential,” he added. “We need to take a moonshot. At present we have a hybrid of linear DTT and digital streaming but what’s coming down the line could look, feel and behave very differently.”

Abraham will share his views when he appears before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into the BBC Charter review tomorrow (23 June).

To read Abraham’s paper in full, please click here.