EXCLUSIVE: Some BBC employees would like Matt Brittin to travel back in time and scrub from the record his comments about an AI-generated episode of Doctor Who.

During a staff town hall on Wednesday, BBC insiders voiced concerns about Brittin’s comments at the Royal Television Society London Convention last week, in which the director-general said that an AI Doctor Who was “pretty good.”

In a question that received 86 upvotes, one staffer wrote: “Matt, can you please rethink your fascination with AI-generated programmes? You recently mentioned a Dr Who one. Dr Who is made in Cardiff. What happened to the BBC’s commitment to bringing arts and the creative industries to all corners of the UK? Young people especially do not want this [AI] content.”

In a second comment seen by Deadline, another insider said: “Is it not time for the BBC to fully reject generative AI? I think Matt’s comments about AI Dr Who and news presenters haven’t been helpful. We’re not a content machine like Netflix and should surely focus on doing things better (not just faster).” The question received more than 30 upvotes.

Brittin joked during the town hall that he “got in trouble” for his Doctor Who comments, which generated headlines in national newspapers. He also expanded on his thinking, stressing that human-led creativity would always be at the heart of the BBC’s mission.

“I was just trying to make the point: Look at the pace of change and what this stuff can do. It’s really important. I’ve spent a lot of time on this, as you can imagine,” he explained.

“We have to understand what it’s capable of, for good and for ill, and that means things like the risk of our journalistic integrity being undermined. You want to know that that is Steve Rosenberg in Moscow and not an AI-generated state actor-backed facsimile of him, and we need to understand those risks.”

He continued: “Equally, AI can help tools on research, journalists using things like Notebook is hugely powerful. So we’ve got to put it to work. What I want to do is accelerate the velocity of testing and learning in this space because it’s vital to the integrity of what we do. It will help us to be more effective in a more efficient in some ways, and there are some creative opportunities that come through too.”

“But I want to be really clear: Humans are leading, and I believe in human creativity, enhanced by whatever tools. We’re surrounded by technology today. It’ll be different technology tomorrow. But the BBC has to stand for human trust, using the best technology.”

The AI Doctor Who debate followed Deadline revealing that producers are bidding to reboot the series on the BBC as part of a competitive tender process. Line of Duty showrunner Jed Mercurio is spearheading a pitch from Hat Trick Mercurio, while STV Studios, the production group behind Blue Lights and Criminal Record, has made an audacious bid to move the show to Scotland for Season 17.

Microsoft Xbox, hoping to replicate the success of franchises like Minecraft and Fallout, is launching a new division called XP designed to extend properties beyond video games.

The XP name is described as a play on “experience points.” It has four main components: Xbox Pictures for film and TV adaptations; Xbox Products for licensing and merchandise; Xbox Partnerships for sponsors and brand partners; and Xbox Places for broadcast and in-person events.

“Our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them,” CEO Asha Sharma explained to employees in a staff memo Thursday.

Expanding properties beyond video games then creates a virtuous cycle, Xbox says. Fallout titles on Xbox Game Pass saw a 5x increase in hours played during Fallout‘s first season on Prime Video. Minecraft saw over a 75% increase in weekly active users of the game year-over-year since the movie’s release in the spring of 2025.

Hollywood, meanwhile, has finally found its groove with adapting games into films and series. Sony revived Resident Evil last month and HBO drew big viewership and critical praise with The Last of Us, just to name a couple of recent success stories.

The XP news comes after Xbox has initiated a self-described “reset” with multiple rounds of layoffs and restructured its studio businesses to adapt to a changing operating environment in the games sector. In 2023, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $23 billion at a moment when mobile and casual gaming was starting to upend the traditional console business.

Kayleen Walters, a former Lucasfilm executive, has been named president of XP. She is expected to build a team at the division from staffer both internal and external. Maria Angelidou-Smith is joining Xbox as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft after nearly a decade at Meta.

After spending 13 years at Lucasfilm working on Star Wars, Walters helped grow Xbox’s consumer products arm into a mult-billion-dollar business with more than 250 licenses. She was an executive producer of A Minecraft Movie, and is a full producer on its sequel, which is currently in production.

“Fans don’t just play our franchises,” Walters wrote to employees in an email to her team. “They watch them, wear them, attend them, celebrate them, and connect with them in countless ways.”

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.”