TV watchdog Ofcom says it desires to control Netflix after Jimmy Carr controversy

The top of UK’s broadcast watchdog Ofcom has mentioned it ought to regulate on-line companies like Netflix, following a row over a joke by comic Jimmy Carr.

Dame Melanie Dawes, the regulator’s chief government, mentioned there could be “actual worth” in extending the organisation’s remit given the shift in the best way individuals watch leisure.

Mr Carr was extensively criticised after making a joke concerning the Holocaust, through which he recommended that it was good that gypsies had been murdered by the Nazis.

However the comic’s programme was solely out there on on-line tv service Netflix and so shouldn’t be coated by Ofcom guidelines – which means it can’t take care of complaints concerning the feedback.

Talking in an interview with Channel 4 information on Monday night Dame Melanie was requested whether or not Ofcom ought to have the ability to regulate such online-only reveals.

“I can actually see that there’ll be actual worth in that. Sure. And so we might welcome any probability to work on that,” she mentioned.

She added: “I can actually perceive why lots of people discovered that very offensive and as you say, we do not regulate Netflix in the mean time, they’re beneath the Dutch regulator.

“And I feel that may be a concern as a result of it signifies that for viewers, it’s actually complicated that they have completely different requirements utilized, for instance, to Channel 4 Information than they need to YouTube and different companies, together with Netflix, that come streamed on to our TVs.”

Ofcom at present regulates broadcast tv, radio, telecoms and the postal service. The regulator licences TV and radio stations, and may revoke licences within the case of a critical breach.

It additionally has the ability to levy fines, equivalent to final yr when it lapped Russian state-backed channel RT £200,000 for breaching impartiality guidelines. Ofcom additionally has the ability to sanction channels for inflicting hurt of being grossly offensive.

However on-line streaming companies equivalent to Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime are past its attain.

Tradition secretary Nadine Dorries has beforehand recommended that new legal guidelines within the authorities’s the Media Invoice may maintain to account streaming websites for airing jokes equivalent to these made by Mr Carr.

Downing Avenue on Monday known as the comic’s feedback “deeply disturbing”, however mentioned it was a matter for Netflix whether or not the comic’s present ought to stay on-line.