UK Streaming Platforms Face Ofcom Oversight Under New Media Act Implementation
The Development
The UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced on February 24, 2026 that it is drafting secondary legislation to implement the Media Act 2024, bringing major streaming services under Ofcom's regulatory authority for the first time. Any service exceeding 500,000 UK users will be classified as Tier 1, pulling Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Channel 4, and ITVX into scope. These platforms must comply with a new VOD standards code modelled on Ofcom's existing Broadcasting Code, requiring accurate and impartial news reporting and protection from harmful content. A separate VOD accessibility code mandates that at least 80 percent of content is subtitled, 10 percent audio described, and 5 percent signed. The standards code takes effect one year after Ofcom publishes it; the accessibility code allows four years for full compliance, with interim targets at two years.
Our Take
The 500,000-user threshold is deliberately set to catch the global giants while sparing smaller players—but the real strategic pressure falls on content and compliance teams at the major platforms, not marketing departments. That said, marketers at brands advertising on these platforms should read this carefully: Ofcom's content standards code directly governs what can sit around your ads. Stricter content enforcement means tighter adjacency controls and a narrower band of acceptable inventory, which compresses premium supply. The level-playing-field argument from UK PSBs like ITV has been loud for years, and while this legislation moves the needle, it stops short of equalising the structural cost burden—PSBs still carry obligations worth hundreds of millions annually that streamers don't. Expect PSBs to continue lobbying for further obligations on international platforms, making this regulation a floor, not a ceiling.
The Exploit
Action Item
If you're a media or compliance lead at a brand with significant UK streaming investment, audit your adjacency and content suitability requirements against Ofcom's Broadcasting Code now—that code becomes the template for the incoming VOD standards, and the one-year implementation window after publication will move fast.