YouTube, TikTok, and other major video-sharing platforms will be told to carry public service content prominently under new legislation being drawn up by the UK government.

British ministers are pressing ahead with a new Media Bill that will require YouTube to make it easy to discover content from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Paramount-owned 5. In practical terms, that could mean boosting official clips from shows like Question Time in user feeds and search results.

The idea was first floated by UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy last September at the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention. On Tuesday, the government will publish a policy paper outlining the plans in more detail. This will be followed by a 10-week industry consultation.

Ministers think that promoting public service media on influential platforms like YouTube will reflect changing viewing habits, as well as combat the tide of misinformation and disinformation on these services.

“It is vital that we make sure that people have better access to trusted and accurate news and that our regulated public service media is seen and heard in the fierce battle against mis and disinformation,” Nandy said.

“As the media landscape moves further and further online away from traditional broadcasting we must act so that our world-leading TV sector continues to thrive and top-quality UK content keeps being produced.”

Major tech players have already criticized the plans, however. David Wheeldon, senior director of government affairs and public policy for YouTube in Europe, said: “The UK’s creator economy is a global success story because of one simple idea: on YouTube, viewers decide what they want to watch. Videos become popular because they connect with their audience, not because we’re required to prioritise them.

“Prominence rules seek to distort that – forcing YouTube to prioritise government-picked channels over whatever viewers actually came to watch. That’s not fair on users, creators or the wider journalism ecosystem. We’ll continue to advocate for a level playing field.”

YouTube said last year that legislation was “premature” at a time when it is talking to public broadcasters, including the BBC, about closer partnerships. Media minister Ian Murray told journalists that it was the government’s preference that video-sharing platforms make changes voluntarily.

ITV CEO Carolyn McCall praised the intervention: “The way people watch content has changed radically in recent years and brought challenges to sustaining these investments.

“We therefore welcome a [policy] paper that will help enable PSBs to continue to effectively serve the UK public interest through trusted, high-quality, easily accessible content delivered on the platforms and services that people use both now and in future.”

Separately, the UK government will bring forward legislation to ensure that streaming services have to make major sports events available to UK viewers for free. The government will update the so-called “listed events” regime to capture on-demand rights, meaning the FIFA World Cup, Olympics, and Wimbledon would not be hidden behind a paywall if Netflix outbid a free-to-air network like the BBC.