29 Facts About BritBox

BritBox is an online digital video subscription service, founded by BBC Studios and ITV plc, operating in nine countries across North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.

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.

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 includes extensive archives of older programming, such as the popular Doctor Who classic series on the service.

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.

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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.

In February 2019, it was announced that BritBox would be launched in the UK later in the year as a rival to Netflix.

In October 2019, BritBox launched its "testing phase" 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 27 July 2020, BritBox announced plans to expand the service to 25 more countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and Africa.

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 over a period of three years.

BritBox's said that the Joint venture would look at different structures depending on the specific opportunity, with some potentially taking a B2B2C form rather than a direct D2C approach, i e BritBox partnering with a local distributor or service provider.

BritBox's added that BritBox is "focused on moving as fast as we can" into international markets.

On 16 February 2021, BBC Studios and ITV announced that BritBox is to launch in South Africa in the second half of 2021.

On 14 December 2021, BritBox International announced a distribution partnership with C More, bringing the service to C More and TV 2 Play subscribers in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway from early 2022.

Standalone sign up to BritBox directly is available through BritBox's website in these countries.

BritBox service is operated by different entities depending on country of operation.

In September 2017, BritBox released a reconstruction of the Doctor Who story The Wheel in Space using the surviving episodes and reconstruction using Tele-snaps.

BritBox advised that in early October 2020, BT was launching an offer for its broadband customers to get six months BritBox for free on its YouView box.

BritBox said that BritBox could act as a source of complete box sets alongside the catch-up services.

Big part of the BritBox catalogue is the extensive archives of the public service broadcasters, BritBox faces the challenge of hosting content that contains outdated stereotypes and opinions.

BritBox bosses have said a range of older shows, such as the BBC's Till Death Us Do Part and It Ain't Half Hot Mum, as well as ITV's Love Thy Neighbour, will not appear on the service because of content deemed racist or otherwise unacceptable.

Critics warn that BritBox needs to greatly increase its financial firepower and original programming to compete in especially the UK market, against rivals, Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+, following reports more Brits would subscribe to Disney+ over BritBox.

Critics say that BritBox is no rival, and cannot rival Netflix without substantial resources.

For example, BritBox carries Coronation Street in the US but not in Canada, where the corresponding rights have long been held by CBC Television.

BritBox launched in Canada on 14 February 2018, on launch the service included a free 7-day trial and in which content can be streamed on the web, on an iOS app, Apple TV, Android, Samsung TVs, Chromecast and Roku.

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BritBox UK signed a partnership deal with Channel 4 in 2019, allowing the service to host over a thousand hours of content from All 4 over the next three years.

On 21 August, BritBox UK confirmed a collection of 25 titles, primarily drawn from the Film4 library, including: Trainspotting, Beast, Charlotte Gray and The Hatton Garden Job which were made available on the service from 17 September 2020.

On 14 December 2021, BritBox International announced a distribution partnership with C More, bringing the service to C More and TV2 subscribers in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Norway from early 2022.

BritBox is only available to residents of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.