BritBox: BBC and ITV collaborate to launch new streaming service

[lolly]

ITV and the BBC have now signed an agreement to launch BritBox in the UK in the fourth quarter of this year. This is a bold, new step for ITV and BBC as they seek to work together to offer something fresh and distinctive to the public.

• BritBox will be competitively priced at £5.99 per month in HD and across multiple screens and devices, which is less than other streaming services
• BritBox will be full of the nation’s favourite programmes and the home of the largest collection of British boxsets. In addition to this storehouse, BritBox is commissioning a broad range of original series made exclusively for BritBox
• The brand-new streaming service will be co-branded by ITV and the BBC and will showcase the depth and breadth of British creativity, on demand, ad free and all in one place
• Mainstream audiences are moving to SVOD in large numbers and research shows that there is a real appetite among British viewers for a new British streaming service - in addition to their current subscriptions
• BritBox will be the place to view shows recently broadcast on ITV and BBC including Love Island, Famalam, Cleaning Up and Gentleman Jack as well as bringing home iconic shows such as Gavin And Stacey, Victoria, Happy Valley, Broadchurch, Les Miserables, The Office and Benidorm which will be on the service at launch or come onto the service shortly after when licences with other SVODs end

Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV, says: "The agreement to launch BritBox is a milestone moment. Subscription video on demand is increasingly popular with consumers who love being able to watch what they want when they want to watch it. They are also happy to pay for this ease of access to quality content and so BritBox is tapping into this, and a new revenue stream for UK public service broadcasters.

“ITV and BBC have made, and continue to make, the programmes that both reflect and shape British culture and creativity. We now look forward to working together to launch the largest collection of British boxsets ever - bringing the very best in past, present and future British programming and award-winning content to viewers all in one place.

"We are already working together on BritBox in the US and Canada and this is proving to be very successful, exceeding its targets.

"We are committed to making BritBox UK a great success. Discussions continue with other content and distribution partners and we are looking forward to making further announcements in the coming months.”

BBC Director General, Tony Hall, says: “We have a world beating TV industry with outstanding content. The BBC and ITV are at the centre of that. Together, we have been responsible for delivering the majority of “must see” moments on British TV over the last decade. That 'must see' content will now be on BritBox.

“But this service isn’t just about the past. I am really excited about the new shows it will commission. With a remit to be daring and different, many future classics will be commissioned and live on BritBox for the future. These are exciting times for people who love quality TV. Importantly, these shows will be truly British, showcasing our culture and telling distinctive stories. It’s what makes real British TV so special.”

BritBox will tap into the demand for a new British streaming service and the innovative new service will have thousands of hours of the nation’s favourite content from ITV and the BBC (as well as from other British broadcasters and production companies) across a variety of genres, including critically acclaimed drama, crime thrillers, classic comedy and powerful documentaries alongside reality hits and entertainment.

Past
ITV and the BBC will open up their archive of owned content to BritBox viewers. BritBox will be a multi-genre service, with a strong focus on multi series drama boxsets, and from launch thousands of hours of much-loved British television will be available. BritBox will curate this unique store of award-winning television to enable viewers to reconnect with favourite shows and to discover classic programmes they missed first time.

Present
Both ITV and the BBC will also provide a new and regular flow of fresh programmes as soon as they come out of their broadcast and catch-up windows. This will provide viewers with hundreds of hours of new ITV and BBC content every year. Many of these shows will be exclusive to UK viewers through BritBox and the flow of programmes will ensure that the content on BritBox is refreshed every week.

Future
BritBox is also commissioning original content from British production companies specifically created for BritBox. The first new show is expected to be commissioned soon and will be available to BritBox viewers from 2020.

Governance and equity structure
BritBox will be an ITV-controlled venture, but as a founding partner, the BBC will contribute to the development of the core purposes and strategic direction of the venture. ITV initially holds 90% and the BBC holds 10% of the equity. The BBC has an option to acquire additional shares over time up to 25% in total and ITV will have the ability to bring additional investors on board. ITV will be able to appoint a majority of the BritBox board while the BBC's equity stake provides it with board representation from the outset.

BritBox will have its own dedicated management team led by Reemah Sakaan, Group Director ITV SVOD, responsible for making editorial decisions about the service content while also ensuring alignment with ITV's and the BBC's branding and editorial policies. Reemah reports to Kevin Lygo, ITV’s Director of Television, who has overall commissioning responsibility for BritBox.

BritBox will pay market rate fees for all content provided by ITV, BBC and other rights owners.

Promotion and marketing
Both ITV and the BBC will support the launch of BritBox with a high-profile marketing and promotional campaign and will also look at how best to connect viewers between BritBox, ITV Hub and BBC iPlayer as they search for the content they wish to view.
With ITV’s and BBC's commitment to BritBox they will be building a distinctive library of content, as existing licence agreements with other players expire.

 

[lolly]

I read an article a few weeks ago (the Guardian, I think) questioning if the streaming bubble is going to burst. I've got Netflix and Prime, but Prime only for the Amazon delivery really - I don't think I've ever watched a Prime Original show, unless that Madame X documentary counts.

Presumably BBC and ITV will be withdrawing at least some of their output from Netflix now, if they are going to have their own service. And then when Disney Plus launches, won't that hit Netflix much harder?

And I struggle to think that most households will go above two paid for subscriptions - particularly in the UK, on top of the licence fee. And doesn't it throw up interesting questions about the licence fee, anyway?

 

[Slave]

If nothing else, the BBC will surely have to be much more transparent about its spend, because they're now monetising and re-selling their shows to a large chunk of audience who are obliged to pay the licence fee. It may put pressure on them to drop the cost of the licence fee unless they can justify where that extra annual income is going.

We definitely run the risk of being overwhelmed with streaming services - I think Netflix have ridden out the storm quite well though. They've been gradually losing content over the last 18 months as companies have reclaimed their shows to launch their own service - but they now seem to function quite well with their original content. And they're becoming a lot more cutthroat, axing shows that aren't immediately successful and comissioning new ones.

I think the biggest challenge facing Britbox will be the content - it's fine saying they'll shove loads of classic shows on there, but streaming still skews towards a younger market and are things like Dad's Army, Only Fools & Horses, etc. going to drive that audience towards Britbox? I tend to think that the people interested in that will own DVDs and be happy to watch the occasional repeat.

 

[Peekaboo]

If nothing else, the BBC will surely have to be much more transparent about its spend, because they're now monetising and re-selling their shows to a large chunk of audience who are obliged to pay the licence fee. It may put pressure on them to drop the cost of the licence fee unless they can justify where that extra annual income is going.

That's not how it works. The license fee doesn't give you a license to rewatch the show in perpetuity. The BBC is allowed to commercially exploit titles after their broadcast window, even in the UK.
If anything it will make their iPlayer windows (which have been renegotiated lately) stricter since I doubt they will be putting all of Doctor Who for free on it if they want it to be a draw for Britbox, for example.

 

[lolly]

I guess really it's no different to the BBC selling DVDs - they don't have to give copies away to people who have paid for their TV licence already. But I do think it will make people question the licence fee more.

 

[Shirley]

I'm quite surprised at this whole thing seeing as BBC STORE was such a RESOUNDING FAILURE

 

[Peekaboo]

I nearly got roped in to work for BBC Store

There is a slight but crucial difference in business models between BBC Store and this in that Store is based on the (now kind of defunct) iTunes model of paying per programme whereas this is a subscription model. If anything Britbox resembles the Global iPlayer BBC Worldwide had a few years ago outside the UK, which also tanked because the BBC shelled out all their good programmes to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and the likes, so there was no incentive beyond OBSCURE BBC4 DOCUMENTARIES for consumers to sign up for it.

 

[SDF]

I’m not really sure why I’d need this?

The only way I see this working is if they remove or strip back material on iPlayer. But that’s likely to piss people off.

 

[Slave]

I don’t think either ITV or BBC will scale back their catchup service because they’re crucial to the TV ratings. ITV in particular need to maintain commercial appeal in a world where advertisers have to try harder than ever to catch people during the ad breaks.

And again, any cut to the BBC’s existing service will likely bring scrutiny on the licence fee. Particularly now they’re going to be getting more of it by making over 75’s pay.

 

[GinAg (39)]

The streaming bubble is gonna burst sooner or later. BBC and Disney are getting into an already messy market. Exclusive content isn't working across so many services.

 

[FetchFugly]

I read the BBC are in the process of getting permission to keep stuff on iPlayer for a year as well. I can't see Britbox flying at all. They are talking about exclusive content but surely they aren't going to be able to produce it in any volume comparable to the existing players, and as noted I expect older viewers looking for BBC sitcoms are likely to just stick on Gold and see what they have on.

 

[lolly]

I watch a lot of old BBC content on Netflix, a lot of which I have on DVD (but then, I don't think I've played a DVD in probably two years), but even so, it isn't what drives me to Netflix - that's the original/exclusive content.

I do think this could work, but I struggle with how it works alongside the future of the licence fee, and the existing iplayer offering, which is increasingly important already.

 

[Slave]

Surely the licence fee is in its dying days?

The concept of being legally obliged to pay a licence that funds channels you may have little or no interest in sits at complete odds with, well, pretty much any other model of consumption.

Even services like Sky tier their prices based on what the customer wants to watch.

 

[GinAg (39)]

Surely the licence fee is in its dying days?

The concept of being legally obliged to pay a licence that funds channels you may have little or no interest in sits at complete odds with, well, pretty much any other model of consumption.

Even services like Sky tier their prices based on what the customer wants to watch.

Yeah it's on the way out with streaming. You can see by the viewing figures. But then I do think a public service broadcaster would be missed.

 

[big ron]

Has Netflix just posted really bad subscriber figures? I mean they make some OK programs, but the majority of their original productions are, lets face it, dog shit.

 

[GinAg (39)]

As I say the model is about to fall apart. Really quickly. Netflix was great for a while, because it had everything. I like most people rarely find much on it any more. This is mainly due to it the content being spread out as the market expands. At least with streaming services exclusivity is rarely a thing. And those who do it, I suspect regret it. Beyonce's last album being inaccessible for about 3 years, put me right off her.

 

[GinAg (39)]

I watched a Youtube clip on this, so I know EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. Obviously.

 

[Peekaboo]

Surely the licence fee is in its dying days?

The concept of being legally obliged to pay a licence that funds channels you may have little or no interest in sits at complete odds with, well, pretty much any other model of consumption.

Even services like Sky tier their prices based on what the customer wants to watch.

The day you do that is the day the BBC as it is today dies. The BBC's ultimate goal is not to compete with Sky. It's to provide a public service for all citizens of the UK. Do you really want to leave TV production and broadcasting up to the whims of the market? As a member of a minority group, that's a slippery slope to get onto. The BBC produces many programmes and funds many projects that would simply not get made if you were looking at the bottom line only.

Forgive me but this is the standard argument of economic libertarianism that is fucking up the world. The BBC provides a public service much like your council does. If we all started to choose where we allocate our taxes there would be many projects and many people who would suffer as a result.

Public services are a collective responsibility which means not everyone gets all their benefits all the time. And that is FINE. The upside is these services can be and actually are held to account, like the BBC is. It's a far from perfect system and it's open to abuse but it's much better than LET THE MARKET DECIDE.

 

[GinAg (39)]

The day you do that is the day the BBC as it is today dies. The BBC's ultimate goal is not to compete with Sky. It's to provide a public service for all citizens of the UK. Do you really want to leave TV production and broadcasting up to the whims of the market? As a member of a minority group, that's a slippery slope to get onto. The BBC produces many programmes and funds many projects that would simply not get made if you were looking at the bottom line only.

Forgive me but this is the standard argument of economic libertarianism that is fucking up the world. The BBC provides a public service much like your council does. If we all started to choose where we allocate our taxes there would be many projects and many people who would suffer as a result.

Public services are a collective responsibility which means not everyone gets all their benefits all the time. And that is FINE. The upside is these services can be and actually are held to account, like the BBC is. It's a far from perfect system and it's open to abuse but it's much better than LET THE MARKET DECIDE.

Oh I totally agree and I'm grateful for the BBC, but the licence fee is becoming harder and harder to justify. Mind you, I probably get my money's worth with their TV, iPlayer and BBC News website combined.

 

[lolly]

Yeah, when I think of what I pay per week and what I get out of the BBC I think it's staggeringly good value for money - worth it for radio/podcasts alone.

And that's before I even consider the public service aspect of it.

 

[GinAg (39)]

I don't even touch their podcasts. I must pay a proper visit to BBC Sounds, there's a lot of appealing stuff on there.

 

[octophone]

These models need volume and quantity to work. As more services open up and keep their content exclusive, the amount available to each platform will seem less and less attractive. No-one is going to have four or five subscriptions so there's the potential for the whole streaming model to atrophy.

Imagine if record labels started withdrawing from Spotify and making their content exclusive to their own services. Spotify would go bust almost immediately.

 

[Diddy]

I don't even touch their podcasts. I must pay a proper visit to BBC Sounds, there's a lot of appealing stuff on there.

Yes, definitely More or Less, and if you have trouble sleeping, In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg

 

[Lee]

I’d love something like this not being in the country, but I assume they’d never release it outside of the UK.
Are there many streaming services there apart from the standard?
Australia has 5 in total, with a 6th going under a couple of years back. I don’t know how they all stay afloat (clearly they don’t). I’m not sure how it can keep going with Disney and Apple entering soon.

 

[Diddy]

I’m just hoping it’ll go like music streaming, some of them will be limited to certain artists, but then it’ll become more obvious that it’s in the makers’ interests to be multi platform

 

[lolly]

Has Netflix just posted really bad subscriber figures? I mean they make some OK programs, but the majority of their original productions are, lets face it, dog shit.

They are throwing out so much invariably some of it won't hit the spot, but many of my favourite TV shows this year are Netflix exclusives. Sex Education, Tales Of The City, What/If, Dead To Me, Bonding, Special and Blown Away are as good as anything I've watched elsewhere.

 

[lolly]

I'm even enjoying Caroline Quentin getting to dip her musty minge in the pools of some of The World's Most Extraordinary Homes.

 

[Christian]

I cancelled my Amazon Prime account as having two (Netflix being the other) just made no sense as I don't have time to watch much on either. Plus I don't really need same day toilet roll delivery, so there's that too.

There's no way I'd pay for BBC and ITV's greatest hits and I'm hard pressed to see who would. I guess costs will be pretty minimal if they don't produce much original content, otherwise this is just DOA and will probably just escalate the shouts for the licence fee to be made optional/scrapped/reduced/etc.

Is going to be a messy old market over the next few years with Disney, Universal, Apple and NBC all throwing their offerings into the mix and it's bound to implode. Platform exclusivity is just going to limit content producers' market, so this lot are ultimately going to have find some other way to differentiate themselves. I've already found with Amazon that I was happy to abandon the two shows I liked on that platform (Transparent and Red Oaks) and just concentrate on what the other was offering.

 

[Shirley]

I don't really need same day toilet roll delivery

I don't have AMAZON PRIME but if it involves that kind of BOON for the TROUBLED I might LOOK AFRESH!

 

[Christian]

I don't have AMAZON PRIME but if it involves that kind of BOON for the TROUBLED I might LOOK AFRESH!

Get yourself one of those Amazon buttons you stick on the wall and then press when you need more ROLL and never get caught in a tight spot again!

 

[SDF]

How appropriate that this conversation has turned to loo roll

 

[Sheena]

Get yourself one of those Amazon buttons you stick on the wall and then press when you need more ROLL and never get caught in a tight spot again!

I thought those buttons were stopped after there were loads of stories of kids hitting the buttons at will and poor housewives in Lowestoft ending up with 30 pallets of nappies at their door...

 

[lolly]

I don't have AMAZON PRIME but if it involves that kind of BOON for the TROUBLED I might LOOK AFRESH!

I simply REFUSE TO BELIEVE that you don't have a back up supply pile as high as Floppet's EMERGENCY TINNED MEAT PIE tower.

 

[Shirley]

I do have quite a few PILED UNDER THE SINK in the EN SUITE for my own personal REASSURANCE. Mr S has to BUY HIS OWN as I HAVE NO IDEA HOW HE GETS THROUGH SO MUCH.

 

[lolly]

There's no way I'd pay for BBC and ITV's greatest hits and I'm hard pressed to see who would. I guess costs will be pretty minimal if they don't produce much original content, otherwise this is just DOA and will probably just escalate the shouts for the licence fee to be made optional/scrapped/reduced/etc.

BritBox has existed for some time in the US already, and there I guess it makes sense as a presumably fairly niche (but in a huge market) interest of an audience who otherwise probably would never see it, and who haven't paid a licence fee to feel otherwise entitled to it.

I do wonder if this is a very cautious toe in the water for the BBC considering they only have a 10% stake, but they are hedging their bets and keeping their options open. I think most people think the licence fee isn't sustainable in the long term anyway, but under the Tories it's more likely short to medium term before it's no more.

 

[lolly]

I've seen and heard substantial advertising about for this in the last few weeks. Haven't noticed any BBC products being pulled from Netflix yet, though.

 

[octophone]

I read a piece suggesting that some programmes will be marked for dodgy content like the episode of Fawlty Towers where The Major drops an N-bomb and "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" which apparently saw regular racism and homophobia.

I don't expect something made in the 1970's to be up to speed with the values of today but I'm also not sure where the line will be drawn. The casual misogyny of "Men Behaving Badly"?

 

[lolly]

The world of content warnings baffles me sometimes. I suppose I should be grateful I'm not triggered by that much.

 

[GinAg (39)]

I dont necessarily want to see the racist stuff of the past, but I think a content warning serves it well. Censoring the past is dodgy territory. If anything they serve as interesting historical documents.

 

[octophone]

If anything they serve as interesting historical documents.

That's how I feel. I'm not into erasing the past. we need to remember how casually racist people a lot of people were as well as how aggressively racist a much smaller number were. The former was every bit as insidious and we can't be allowed to forget. However, we also should avoid piling on those people now - with Fawlty Towers, Cleese and Booth were writing a character with a racist streak so they used the language one would hear from someone of that age and perspective. Twenty years later, they would have written him very differently.