BBC chief: UK still 'light' on tech talent

The head of the BBC's commercial arm warned UK creative businesses must be "healthily, obsessively paranoid about the dangers of falling behind" yesterday as he pointed out Britain and Europe lack internet platforms or TV channels with global reach compared to American and Asian rivals.

"Even the BBC is underexploited in terms of the reach of our services," admitted Tim Davie, the recently appointed chief executive of £1bn-a-year BBC Worldwide, whose job is to sell BBC shows such as Sherlock and Dr Who around the world. "If you look at the top content websites around the world, you see the huge dominance of US and Asian sites and very few UK and European brands," he told the Technology Innovators Forum. "We're light."