BritBox is a British over-the-top video on demand streaming service owned by BBC Studios which operates in seven countries across Australia, Europe, and North America. In addition to original programming, it offers British television series and films, featuring current and past series as well as films supplied by Britain's major terrestrial broadcasters the BBC and ITV (Channel 4 and Channel 5 programming was available on the UK service starting in 2020). BritBox is said to feature the biggest collection of British box sets available in one place, with additional original programming available from 2020.
BritBox was first launched in the United States on 7 March 2017, followed by a launch in Canada on 14 February 2018. A separately managed UK service was launched on 7 November 2019. From 2020, the service has since launched in Australia, South Africa, and in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, through local partnerships in these four countries. The service in the UK and the international services are operated differently, and host differing content, including BritBox UK's exclusive original content. There are content restrictions between each platform, leading some content to be available on one platform and unavailable on another.
BritBox provides new episodes to British soaps and dramas such as EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, within hours of their UK broadcast via BritBox's 'Now' feature to US and Canadian users, but also includes extensive archives of older programming, including Doctor Who classic series on the service. It reported a subscriber base of 250,000 within a year of launching in the US. In 2019, 650,000 subscribers were reported from the North American platform.BritBox set for launch before end of 2019 Choose LTD 23 July 2019 In early 2020, the number of US and Canadian subscribers surpassed 1 million users, to around 1.2 million by August, and 1.5 million by October, following strong growth in the North American service due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 9 March 2021, it was reported that the UK service had surpassed 500,000 subscribers, meeting BritBox's UK target. Will Harrison, BritBox UK's managing director told members of the UK Broadcasting Press Guild that BritBox was "very happy" at how the service had performed since its November 2019 launch. By 1 July 2022, it had reached 2.6 million.
History
Failed "Project Kangaroo"
Though not officially described as its successor, BritBox has been likened to an earlier attempt by UK public service broadcasters (PSBs) (BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4) to create an online video-on-demand download service, codenamed "Project Kangaroo", in November 2007. This followed the launches of the broadcasters' own video-on-demand services.
On Wednesday, 4 February 2009, Project Kangaroo was blocked by the Competition Commission.
The commission stated that the case surrounding Kangaroo was about the control of valuable UK-originated TV content. "BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 together control the vast majority of this material, which puts them in a very strong position as wholesalers of TV content to restrict competition from other current and future providers of video-on-demand services to UK viewers," said Peter Freeman, the chairman of the Competition Commission, in its final report on Project Kangaroo. "We thought viewers would benefit from better video-on-demand [VoD] services if the parties – possibly in conjunction with other new and/or already established providers of VoD – competed with each other."
A Channel 4 spokesperson said at the time, "This is a disproportionate remedy and a missed opportunity in the further development of British broadcasting."
After the planned Project Kangaroo was blocked, the system's assets were sold to transmitter firm Arqiva and this led to the development of the service SeeSaw, which operated from February 2010 to October 2011, with content from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, some of which (such as Doctor Who) now appears on BritBox.
Rise of streaming Since the rise of Netflix and subsequent other Subscription Video on Demand services (SVODs), European PSBs and media companies, in particular, have started to find ways to compete with the increasing dominance of American SVODs, and many old rivalries have been put aside in preference of collaboration by creating jointly controlled SVODs, such as BritBox, Salto (backed by French networks TF1 Group, France Télévisions and M6), and Germany-based Joyn (a joint venture between ProSiebenSat.1 Media and Discovery, Inc.). Such actions are motivated by reports showing younger generations shunning terrestrial TV, and with fears that PSBs have no choice but to adapt in the rapidly changing television market.
Establishment of joint venture Following increased competition from the streaming giants on the public service broadcasters, the BBC (through BBC Worldwide) and ITV announced plans to create a Netflix-style TV service. Talks between the BBC and ITV to launch this streaming service took place in March 2016, with NBCUniversal also initially in the talks.
BritBox's launch in the United States was officially announced in December 2016, with the launch date to be 7 March 2017. The BBC and ITV announced several shows they would be running on BritBox including New Blood, Tutankhamun, The Moonstone, In The Dark, Cold Feet and crime series Silent Witness on US launch. On 14 February 2018, BritBox launched in Canada.
In February 2019, it was announced that BritBox would be launched in the UK later in the year as a rival to Netflix. Journalist Mark Lawson likened the proposed project to BBC Worldwide's previous failed platform, Project Kangaroo, which was expected to launch in 2008, and described it as "bizarre" and "hugely risky". In March 2019, Channel 4 confirmed interest in collaborating with the BBC and ITV. McMafia, Last Tango in Halifax, Les Misérables and the sitcom Gavin & Stacey were some of the programmes available on the UK version, at launch.
In July 2019, the BBC and ITV announced they had signed an agreement to launch BritBox in the UK in the last quarter of 2019.Full Stream Ahead for BritBox in UK as ITV & BBC Sign Agreement ITV 19 July 2019
On 20 September 2019, ITV announced it had reached a deal with ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global) for Channel 5 and Comedy Central UK content. This was followed by an announcement on 27 September that Samsung TVs, Freeview Play and YouView would be the first distribution platforms.
In October 2019, BritBox launched its "testing phase" (beta) in the United Kingdom, to which users could sign up for a free trial to have a "snapshot of what will be there at launch".
On 15 October 2019, BBC Studios global distribution president, Paul Dempsey, admitted there were more markets where the UK-skewing service could work. Alongside the launch of BritBox in Australia, taking the service into its fourth market, BBC Studios and ITV have announced that they will continue to evaluate new opportunities for the roll-out of BritBox in additional territories around the world.
One day before UK launch, on 6 November 2019, The Guardian reported that Channel 4 was to join BritBox after it signed a 3-year deal to provide 1000+ hours of content from All 4 "with a range of comedy, drama and non-scripted programmes from across the service, including new series, and for the first time to any streamer, an exclusive Film4 curated service featuring iconic British films". This means for the first time, all the UK's traditional channels have brought together programmes on a single streaming service. Channel 4 content would be available on BritBox from April 2020 and Film4 content from September 2020, with recently aired content being only available on BritBox 31 days after the airing of the last episode on Channel 4. Channel 4 currently has not taken an equity stake in BritBox.
In March 2020, ITV described BritBox as "on plan" following its UK launch last November. The majority owner in the BBC-ITV streaming venture reported a "strong growth" in subscribers, but didn't report any specific numbers.
On 5 March 2020, the BBC and ITV announced the launch of BritBox in Australia. The service would bring Australians "an unrivalled collection of great British TV shows, and will build on the successful launch and operation of the service in both North America (the USA and Canada) and most recently in the UK". British content from across the past decades, including classic and contemporary box sets from the UK, would be directly available to Australian viewers via a wide range of mobile and connected home devices. BritBox Australia will be run as a 50/50 joint venture partnership between ITV and BBC Studios, and ITV says, the service will draw on the experience of the teams and technology used to successfully launch BritBox in North America and the UK while also recruiting a local team to conduct Australian operations.
On 27 July 2020, BritBox announced plans to expand the service to 25 more countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa. It was not specified which countries BritBox is targeting or what timeframe the rollout is expected to be completed. Following the announcement, ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said: "This international expansion plan will firmly establish BritBox as a global premium brand in a rapidly growing sector" and BBC Studios CEO Tim Davie added: "BritBox has very quickly found a place in viewers’ hearts and we know there is further appetite amongst international audiences who love great British content."
On 21 August 2020, ITV and BBC Studios announced they're set to invest more than A$35 million (€21.2m) into BritBox Australia, which is scheduled to launch in late 2020. BBC Studios and ITV will both invest A$17.7m ($12.7m) into the new SVoD platform over the next three years. ITV has since confirmed to the London Stock Exchange that BritBox Australia is on track to launch on time despite the COVID-19 pandemic, following the confirmation of investment from the UK broadcaster's subsidiary "ITV SVOD Australia Pty Ltd" into the BritBox Australia Partnership (branded as "BritBox Australia") over a period of three years.
In late September 2020, ITV group director, SVOD, Reemah Sakaan addressed the plans to ramp up the service's international presence. She said that BritBox would primarily target markets that consume large amounts of English-language entertainment including large ones such as India, as well as "passion"-driven markets such as the Nordic countries. She said that the joint venture would look at different structures depending on the specific opportunity, with some potentially taking a B2B2C (Business-to-Business-to-Consumer) form rather than a direct D2C (Direct to Consumer) approach, i.e. BritBox partnering with a local distributor or service provider. She added that BritBox is "focused on moving as fast as we can" into international markets.
The service launched in Australia on 23 November 2020, which ITV states is recognised globally as "Doctor Who Day".
On 16 February 2021, BBC Studios and ITV announced that BritBox is to launch in South Africa in the second half of 2021. Like most services outside the United Kingdom, the South African service will be a 50/50 joint venture between BBC Studios and ITV.
On 8 March 2021, it was announced that BritBox UK would join Amazon Video Channels in spring 2021 for UK Amazon Prime subscribers, and on 9 March it was announced that the UK service had surpassed 500,000 subscribers.
The launch date for the South African platform was announced on 27 July 2021, and it launched on 6 August 2021.