YouTube’s EMEA vice-president Pedro Pina told the Edinburgh TV Festival that the platform should be seen as a partner to British television rather than a cause of its decline. He argued that online video is supplying new talent, audiences and income to the sector, and said it could help create a third “golden age” of television driven by disruption and competition.

Pina announced a £3 million ($4 million) investment in the UK industry over three years, focused on new entrants and retraining mid-career workers, alongside a tenfold expansion of YouTube’s National Film and Television School Creator Incubator. He said YouTube supports more than 45,000 full-time-equivalent UK jobs and contributes over £2.2 billion to GDP, while 75% of UK creators who have media careers say they began on the platform; his intervention comes as European regulators consider whether YouTube should face broadcaster-style content-investment obligations.