EXCLUSIVE: BBC director general Matt Brittin has spent time in recent weeks meeting with the leaders of U.S. streamers in an effort to showcase more of the corporation’s content.

Brittin, a former Google executive, told staff on Wednesday that he had met with the “global leadership” of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube in an effort to forge “strategic partnerships.”

Deadline understands, for example, that Brittin sat down with Greg Peters when the Netflix co-CEO visited London in recent weeks.

Brittin has put partnerships at the heart of his agenda in his early months at the BBC, though it is not yet clear how closer collaboration could work with U.S. streamers.

The director general told staff: “Since I’ve been here, we’ve met with the global leadership of Netflix, Amazon, Apple and YouTube to talk about not just the individual things that we’re doing, but what if we step back and say, ‘What are all the things we could do to help the BBC to transform at this time?’

“Because of our reputation and our trust internationally, I think we can get a lot more out of players like that, as well as the many partners we have in other parts of the BBC as well.”

Brittin added that he wants to ensure that the BBC’s content is more “prominent” on Netflix and YouTube, and has previously spoken about making more BBC News output available on these services.

In a deal that predated his arrival, the BBC agreed to produce original YouTube shows for the first time under a pact with the Google-owned video service.

Brittin’s proposals are also in step with the British government’s plan to compel YouTube to promote public service content. YouTube has expressed reservations about this, calling it “forced prominence.”

Brittin’s comments on streamer partnerships come as Reuters reported that the BBC and Channel 4 are scoping out a joint-venture deal.

This could include BBC Studios combining UKTV with Channel 4’s advertising operations, channels including E4 and Film4, and its streaming service. Channel 4’s main network would not be included in such an arrangement, Reuters reported.

Brittin and Channel 4 CEO Priya Dogra have spoken openly about a partnership, including iPlayer hosting Channel 4 shows. Dogra has, however, warned against the BBC acquiring full control of Channel 4.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We won’t be providing any comment, but as we’ve said before, we believe increased collaboration between all public service broadcasters is vital to ensure the industry thrives in a highly competitive global marketplace.”

Channel 4 said: “We won’t be commenting on any speculation but we welcome and support greater collaboration between public service media and strongly believe working together can strengthen impact, innovation and sustainability in UK broadcasting. Channel 4 and the BBC already have a successful commercial relationship, involving ad sales for UKTV and the carriage of U on 4Streaming.”

The 2026 London Film Festival rolls into action this week. And among the headline international galas, there is once again a strong collection of homegrown titles. The most exciting is perhaps Dependence, a moving, formally experimental documentary directed by debut filmmaker Grace Harper Brighouse.

Dependence premiered earlier this year at Camden, where it won the festival’s Harrell Award. The film examines the filmmaker’s strained relationship with her father, an estrangement caused by his OxyContin addiction, using a collection of home movies she shot as a young adult in film school.

“It was in 2013. I was making my first film at film school, about a strip pub in High Wycombe. I was having the best time,” Brighouse explains. “But I was very aware that I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have enough time to make the film the way I wanted.”

Brighouse says her brother suggested returning home to make a film about their dad and his dying dog, Charlie.

“Every year, if my dad and I hadn’t been speaking, he would say, ‘Charlie’s going to die. He’s never going to make it through the winter.’ It gave us both an off-ramp: we could be together without having to apologise to each other for whatever the reason was that we weren’t speaking,” she says.

“So I came back. I’d been watching a lot of Russian documentaries, and I was really enjoying the smoke, the framing, and the very pretentious, arthouse documentary shots that I still love so much. But I realised that it had been quite a long time. I guess this is what a camera does: it lets you observe things that you don’t usually observe, particularly in your closest relationships.”

Brighouse’s father died, and the footage sat dormant for many years.

“I logged and backed up the footage onto about twelve hard drives,” Brighouse says.

“I couldn’t really watch it for a very long time. A dear friend of mine, Eleanor Mortimer, logged it for me so I could look at it without having to watch it. It was such a gift because I couldn’t do it myself.”

Brighouse says she later felt an unexplainable urge to return to the material.

“I would look at it and think, ‘Okay, what was here? Let me look at this.’ Slowly, I understood that I wasn’t done with that film, but it wasn’t the film I was making anymore,” she says. “So, what had it become?”

The Camden programmers described Dependence as “a funny, tender, and poignant essay on family bonds.” Indeed, Dependence is a thoughtful exploration of addiction and the unique power of paternal love.

The film has a breezy construction. There are time jumps, and images are presented in multiple formats. Brighouse also avoids talking heads or any of the visual tropes we’ve come to associate with films about families and addiction. She cites RaMell Ross’s wonderfully transgressive Hale County This Morning, This Evening as an influence.

“That film unlocked a way for me to think about storytelling and time, and about creating a visual language that is different from the guidebook,” Brighouse says.

Brighouse is credited as the director and cinematographer on Dependence. There is additional cinematography by Roger Chapman, Ronnie McQuillan, and Tom Besley. Vera Simmonds was the editor, and the film was produced by Caitlin Mae Burke and Alistair Payne-James (140 Films). Brighouse describes a scrappy production.

“We had to get to a rough cut by scraping together very little money through artist residencies and paid time. Everyone had other jobs while doing it,” she says, adding that she hopes the film can find and engage with a large audience.

“I hope we’ve made something where, in the end, you think, ‘I really just want to talk to my family member and tell them I love them,’” Brighouse says. “That sounds trite, but I hope the film can sit in that space of complex, messy familial love, as well as all the issues it touches on.”

140 Films is heading sales on the project. The film screens Sunday, October 11th, at the LFF.

Check out a clip from Dependence above.