The BBC is reportedly taking an “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach to YouTube‘s TV watch time domination.
Just days after Barb Audiences–the U.K.’s audience measurement/TV ratings organization–announced that YouTube pulled more viewers than the BBC in December 2025, the network has sealed a “major content deal” with YouTube, Financial Times reports.
The deal will have the BBC developing shows specifically for first broadcast on YouTube, people familiar with the matter told FT. The shows will later deploy on the BBC’s own digital streaming platform iPlayer, but are built with YouTube audiences in mind. From the report, shows will apparently have some sort of exclusivity window on YouTube before they head out to other platforms.
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The BBC’s main goal with these shows? To reach a younger audience with factual information.
Sources told FT that the BBC’s YouTube shows will be aimed at Gen Z–an age group where as many as 43% of people say they get their news from TikTok. The BBC reportedly wants to use these shows to counter the amount of disinformation/misinformation on social media.
That amount, as you likely know, has been on a sharp rise since the start of Donald Trump‘s second administration, as platforms cut their fact-checking teams and change their policies to actively allow the spread of fake info. (It’s also worth mentioning the BBC is currently facing a $10 billion lawsuit from Trump, who accuses it of defamatorily editing the speech he made on Jan. 6, 2021.)
Of course, the deal also has a financial upside for the BBC. It doesn’t monetize content through ads to U.K. viewers; instead, it earns money by charging a licensing fee of £174.50/year to each household that watches BBC content.
But with YouTube reaching an international audience, the BBC will earn AdSense revenue on non-U.K.-based views.
As FT points out, this is a big move for the BBC, which previously didn’t have a steady presence on YouTube. It has uploaded some short show clips and trailers to its own YouTube channel in the past, but has always directed viewers interested in full-length episodes to its TV channels, BBC One and BBC Two, and to iPlayer.
Now, though, like every major TV network in the States, the BBC is seeing the squeeze from YouTube watch time. As of February 2025, YouTube is the #1 most-watched distributor of content across broadcast, cable, and streaming in the U.S. This has rankled some competitors (ahem, Netflix), but the BBC is taking a more cooperative approach.
In addition to posting bespoke series, the BBC may also monetize its back catalog by uploading some older shows to YouTube, sources told FT. A formal announcement of the deal is expected next week.
