STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK, Senor Martínez.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yes.
INSKEEP: Are you one of those people who's, you know, cut the cord...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: ...Gotten rid of cable TV?
MARTÍNEZ: Just about. There's only a couple of local news stations in LA. That's the only reason I even have it.
INSKEEP: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Well, I don't have cable TV anymore. I do watch cable, CNN and some others, but I get it through a streaming service. A lot of Americans have cut the cord, and so have many in the U.K. And now, for the first time ever, a streaming service - Netflix - overtook BBC One...
MARTÍNEZ: Dun, dun, dun.
INSKEEP: ...In British TV ratings. Jake Kanter is the investigations editor for Deadline, which reports on the TV and film industry. And they investigated this, discovering that Netflix temporarily dethroned BBC One for a few months (impersonating British accent) last fall.
JAKE KANTER: And then, in December, BBC One overtook Netflix again. And that's not entirely surprising because December is a big month of viewing here in the U.K. We have real established and decadeslong tradition around Christmas Day television viewing.
MARTÍNEZ: I won't even try a British accent.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: But Netflix could - I mean, could rise again, right?
INSKEEP: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Absolutely. That's possible. That's possible. And the BBC told Deadline it's meaningless to compare everything that Netflix streams to a single little TV channel.
KANTER: And that's the entire BBC portfolio. So that includes all of its television channels and its own streaming service, called iPlayer. The BBC is actually much bigger in audience terms than Netflix.
MARTÍNEZ: It's still, though, amazing that an American company might challenge the BBC for its...
INSKEEP: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Own viewers, British viewers.
INSKEEP: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: Kanter says Netflix has somebody in the U.K. specifically in charge of original programming there.
KANTER: We've seen big British shows performing extremely well, both here in the U.K. and internationally. I would point you to "Baby Reindeer," which obviously has made waves on both sides of the Atlantic.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "BABY REINDEER")
RICHARD GADD: (As Donny) Ladies and gentlemen, this is my stalker. Say hello to Martha.
JESSICA GUNNING: (As Martha) Don't you say that to me. Apologize to me right now.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: I just watched a show - Keira Knightley - on Netflix.
INSKEEP: Oh, really?
MARTÍNEZ: I think it's, like, "Black Doves" or something like that. Yeah.
INSKEEP: OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: A good show, really good show.
INSKEEP: This is, apparently, one of the big ones in Britain.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: And the Guy Ritchie series "The Gentlemen." And I guess the question is whether the BBC is going to adapt here a little bit.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. I mean, maybe so, right?
INSKEEP: We're told that some shows now premiere online...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: ...Instead of TV. It's a sea change...
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: ...(Impersonating British accent) On both sides of the sea. Sorry.
MARTÍNEZ: Why don't we have a land change? It's always a sea change...
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: ...Never a land or air change.
INSKEEP: It's an island. It's an island.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, I guess so.
INSKEEP: It's an island.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: OK. No man is an island. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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