The streaming war continue to gain in intensity, as Britbox, the streaming service from British content providers ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, has launched in the United Kingdom.
The BBC reports the service will cost £5.99 per month and will feature mostly classic series, but will also feature new shows, such as Lambs of God.
The drama stars The Handmaid’s Tale’s Ann Dowd, The End of the F****** World’s Jessica Barden and Essie Davis from The White Princess as nuns living on a remote island. It was originally shown on Australian TV in July.
The new service is being positioned as an additional streaming service for viewers who long for access to classic British television programs and films, rather than as a direct Netflix competitor.
Britbox will most feature classic Brit series, such as Cracker, Prime Suspect, Brideshead Revisited, Ashes to Ashes. Comedies on the service will include Absolutely Fabulous, Extras, Blackadder and Fawlty Towers.
Reemah Sakaan, ITV’s group director for streaming, told BBC that some archive programs that have been on services like Netflix will now move to BritBox.
“For some time we’ve been bringing our shows back home and now that we’ve got a destination in BritBox, that’s something we’ll be doing more actively,” said Sakaan. “We’ll still be working in partnership with Netflix and Amazon and all of the other streamers.”
Doctor Who fans will enjoy the 600+ episodes of the good doctor’s series, which will begin streaming by Christmas. Shows and films from Channel 4 and Film4’s back catalogue will be available in 2020.
BritBox enters a rapidly crowding streaming video market, as Apple TV+ launched last week, while the highly-anticipated Disney+ service is due to debut on November 12.
Britbox will be available in the U.K. on various devices, including iOS and Android, the Apple TV, web browsers, and Samsung Smart TV’s released in 2017 or later. Britbox debuted in the U.S. two years ago with a different offering of British shows and movies, and serves approximately 650,000 subscribers.
