BBC and ITV to Launch Britbox Streaming Service in the UK

• BBC and ITV announced a new partnership that will see Britbox finally make it to the UK by the end of 2019.
• The service is already available in North America and Canada and offers exclusive British content.
• There is no official word on pricing and how existing iPlayer and ITV Hub users will be affected.

According to an announcement by BBC and ITV, the two brands are coming together as part of a strategic partnership to offer a new streaming service. The two rival broadcasters announced Britbox, a new service that will go head to head against the likes of Netflix.

Britbox has been around in North America and Canada with hundreds of thousands of individuals already subscribed to the service. The streaming platform seeks to offer British TV content including exclusive programming.

The new service is expected to be available by the second half of 2019, and the brands have promised competitive pricing. With the US price being set at $6.99, we can expect the UK variant of the service to be set at £6.99.

There is no word on a free version of the service supported by ads. We also do not know if it will offer BBC iPlayer content. On-demand content has become very popular over time, and we are seeing a number of local content providers making it big in the streaming market. If Britbox becomes popular, it is unknown what if support for iPlayer and ITV Hub will be continued or if they will be merged permanently.

BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub are already available as standalone services and the two brands coming together hints at cheaper subscription plans compared to getting the services separately. The partnership to bring Britbox to the UK would help both brands compete against international streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more.

Despite the partnership, Britbox will have to rely on services like Netflix and Hulu to offer content to users. The service has been fairly successful in North America and Canada, but it is unknown if other regions will be as welcoming to British content over more competitively priced streaming services.

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