They will also give the UK media watchdog the power to draft and enforce a new video-on-demand code, aimed at setting standards for 'larger TV-like services' such as Netflix, ITV Hub and Now TV to level the rules with traditional broadcasters. Ministers will today release a blueprint that will also signal the death knell for the licence fee by saying the Government is 'ready to implement a new way of funding the BBC'.

The TV company has been publicly owned since it was founded by Margaret Thatcher in 1982 - but the Tories are forging ahead with plans to privatise it, claiming public ownership is holding it back from competing with streaming giants. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today declared it is 'not the Government's business to run' Channel 4 as ministers pushed on with selling the broadcaster as well as reining in the BBC and Netflix.