The Government is reportedly considering forcing social media giants to push BBC content towards users.
The proposals would reportedly require platforms like YouTube, Facebook and TikTok to give greater prominence to the BBC and other public service broadcasters in feeds, search results and algorithms.
Here’s what the proposals might do and why the plan is already drawing criticism.
Priority to BBC, ITV and Channel 4
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) sources told The Telegraph the plan would make it easier for people to find trusted news sources online.
The measures are expected to form part of a wider Green Paper on the future of broadcasting.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer’s Government tightens its oversight on social media, announcing this month a ban on under-16s using social media platforms, with restrictions due from spring 2027.
Prominence rules already exist for TV
Rules of this kind already apply to TV. The Media Act 2024 requires connected platforms such as smart TVs and streaming sticks to give prominence to public service on-demand services, including BBC iPlayer and ITVX.
The Government’s own impact assessment for the Media Act acknowledged that giving priority to public service content could leave non-public service media – including commercial broadcasters, newspapers and independent creators – worse off, as their content “may suffer in terms of discoverability”.
Ofcom’s draft code for connected TVs already shows the squeeze. It proposes that public service apps fill the first nine tiles of a platform’s menu but, with six such apps to fit in, it leaves only three slots for everyone else.
But the pressure to go further has been building for some time. In a July 2025 report, Ofcom warned that “time is running out to save this pillar of UK culture and way of life”.
The regulator set out a six-point plan calling for collective action from broadcasters, platforms, the Government and Ofcom itself. Its first recommendation was greater prominence and discoverability for public service content on third-party platforms.
Ofcom said broadcasters should work “urgently” with YouTube to ensure their content was easy to find on fair commercial terms, describing this as particularly important for news and children’s programming.
There was “a strong case for the Government to legislate” to bring about the change, it added.
Younger audiences moved to social media for news
Ofcom figures show three-quarters of 16- to 24-year-olds mainly get their news through social media, and more than half of all UK adults name it as one of their main sources.
The Government has argued that this may be accelerating the spread of misinformation.
Viewing data points in a similar direction. According to the ratings body Barb, YouTube overtook the BBC on monthly audience reach for the first time in December 2025, reaching 51.9 million viewers against the BBC’s 50.8 million, though the BBC remained ahead on longer-viewing measures.
Ofcom figures show public service broadcasters’ on-demand players account for just 9 per cent of all viewing, against 15 per cent for subscription services such as Netflix and 19 per cent for video-sharing platforms such as YouTube.
Tech firms and free-speech campaigners are pushing back
Technology firms have resisted the Government’s wider agenda. Responding to the UK’s under-16 ban, a YouTube spokesperson warned that “blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less-safe services”.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it shared “the goal of keeping teens safe online” but added that “like others, we don’t think bans will achieve this goal”, arguing that bans “risk isolating teens from online communities and information”.
Lord Young of Acton, founder of the Free Speech Union, told The Telegraph that Starmer “has apparently decided that censoring social media should be his legacy”.
No final decisions are understood to have been made, and a consultation is understood to be expected in the coming weeks.
The DCMS declined to comment.
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