Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. News

U.K. TV giants unveil ‘BritBox’ streaming service to take on Netflix

Trevor Mogg
By

bbc headquarters
mikecphoto/Shutterstock
The U.K’s two leading broadcasters are teaming up to take on Netflix.

BBC Worldwide – the commercial arm of the BBC – and ITV have announced plans for a subscription-based, video-on-demand streaming service for the American market.

Recommended Videos

Called BritBox, the ad-free offering will launch early in 2017 and include a “rich catalog of classic, new, and exclusive” British-made content.

Related

The service marks the first time for the BBC and ITV to partner in this way, and confirms rumors earlier in the year that the pair were cooperating on such a project.

“This unique streaming service will celebrate the very best of British TV, and offer the most comprehensive video-on-demand collection of British content in the market today,” BritBox said in a release. “For decades, BBC and ITV have produced iconic British television series, and for the first time these shows will be combined in a single, curated service allowing fans to find the classic shows they love and discover new hit series.”

Fawlty Towers and EastEnders

Classic shows already lined up for BritBox include the hit 1970s comedy Fawlty Towers written by and starring Monty Python’s John Cleese, and popular period dramas such as Brideshead Revisited, Pride and Prejudice, and Upstairs Downstairs. Soap fans will be able to follow their favorite characters  in London-based EastEnders, or can head north to Yorkshire for the latest happenings in Emmerdale, with editions from both shows hitting BritBox within 24 hours of broadcast in the U.K.

Similar to Netflix and other competing services, subscribers to BritBox will be able to view content via iOS and Android mobile devices, Roku, AppleTV, and Chromecast, with more platforms to follow.

It’s not yet clear what impact, if any, BritBox’s arrival will have on BBC America, or indeed how it might effect the distribution of British shows among other broadcasters in the U.S., with PBS, for example, having proved a popular home for a number of high-profile shows, ITV’s Downton Abbey and the BBC’s Sherlock among them.

Both the BBC and ITV have offered on-demand streaming services for many years, but both are only available to viewers based in the U.K. Features from both services are likely to be incorporated into BritBox.

Living outside the U.S. but like the sound of BritBox? The good news is that there are plans to roll out the service to more international markets over time, so sit tight.

Pricing for BritBox will be available at launch.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
The 10 most popular movies on Netflix right now
A woman points a gun and stares.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, with nearly 250 million subscribers. And just what do those people tend to watch? In particular, what is the most popular movie on Netflix? Each week, the streaming service releases a list of its 10 most-watched movies over a recent seven-day period to keep subscribers in the loop regarding its most popular titles.

Zack Snyder is back in the top 10 with Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, the second film in his space opera series. Despite Snyder's popularity, the new Rebel Moon film could not unseat What Jennifer Did, which is the No. 1 movie for the second straight week. New additions to the top 10 include the comedy Knocked Up at No. 8 and the action movie Anna at No. 2. Below, we've listed the top 10 movies in the U.S. from April 15 to April 21, along with general information about each film, such as genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.

Read more
Deadpool & Wolverine: Everything we know about the film formerly known as Deadpool 3
Deadpool and Wolverine stand together in Deadpool & Wolverine.

In retrospect, we should have suspected that Deadpool & Wolverine wouldn't keep its most famous co-star out of the title. In 2022, Ryan Reynolds coaxed Hugh Jackman into reprising his role as Wolverine for the first time since 2017's Logan. Once that happened, the name Deadpool 3 didn't fully convey how monumental this film would be.

So Marvel Studios has officially retitled it as Deadpool & Wolverine. Jackman has also humorously rebranded the film as Wolverine & [expletive], which would make this R-rated flick a lot harder to market!

Read more
5 years ago, Game of Thrones aired its last great episode. Here’s why it still holds up
Jamie knights Brienne in episode 2 of Game of Thrones season 8.

Many fans would likely agree that Game of Thrones went out not with a bang, but a profound whimper. After dominating pop culture for nearly 10 years, the hit HBO series concluded with a trio of episodes that were universally reviled by both fans and critics alike. The show's lackluster, ham-fisted finale led to its popularity seemingly vanishing into thin air. In the five years since it aired, time hasn't been kind to Game of Thrones season 8.

To this day, many people still discuss the series' final season with a mix of bitterness and disbelief, and those fans won't find any disagreement about the quality of Game of Thrones' last few chapters here. As disappointing as its eighth season remains, though, April 21 marked the five-year anniversary of its noteworthy second episode, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The fan-favorite installment ranks not only as its season's best chapter, but also as the last great episode that Game of Thrones ever produced.

Read more