Ofcom Pushing To Regulate Netflix After Carr Outrage

The head of UK’s broadcast watchdog Ofcom has said it should regulate online services like Netflix, following a row over a joke by comedian Jimmy Carr.

- Jon Stone

Dame Melanie Dawes, the regulator’s chief executive, said there would be “real value” in extending the organisation’s remit given the shift in the way people watch entertainment.

Mr Carr was widely criticised after making a joke about the Holocaust, in which he suggested that it was good that gypsies had been murdered by the Nazis. But the comedian's programme was only available on online television service Netflix and so is not covered by Ofcom rules – meaning it cannot deal with complaints about the comments.