Britbox catch-up in the UK is a turn-off

TV LICENCE holders who subscribe to streaming service britbox have access to fewer programmes than viewers in the US even though they pay more.

American customers have a greater choice because of a deal between britbox and the Us-only portal of Amazon.

Created by ITV and the BBC, britbox has been available for longer in America. The services are separate entities and the US has had much longer to become established, the company says.

This means that UK viewers are currently unable to watch classics like The Sweeney or newer hits such as Michelle Keegan’s Our Girl. British dramas including My Boy Jack are also off limits to British audiences even though they pay £5.99 a month. US subscribers pay as little as £3.82.

This has angered licence holders and britbox subscribers who do not want to pay twice to watch BBC programmes.

Britbox is now playing catch-up with the US version. Our Friends In The North finally landed on the British site this week, nearly three months after the UK launch of the service last November.

However the streaming service is unable to say when many of the titles available in America will be viewable by the UK public who paid for them to be made.

A spokesman said: “Britbox US was established in 2017 and has been in operation for almost three years, whereas britbox UK launched three months ago.

“The content available differs due to different licensing agreements and restrictions.”

Sam Packer, media campaign manager at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Charging Brits to watch shows they already pay for via the licence fee is ridiculous. The BBC should scrap its outdated funding model, axe the tax on television and replace it with subscription fees, rather than trying to rake in cash from both sources.”

Licence holders have gone on Twitter to vent their anger. One posted: “#Britbox would be an essential service if they could just open up the archives beyond what they view as obvious crowd-pleasers.”

Other comments included: “How can the BBC justify the TV licence when they are charging to see programmes which we have paid for before and then essentially charge us again.”

Meanwhile Eastenders enjoyed a record year on BBC iplayer.

BBC figures show viewers streamed or downloaded the soap 234 million times in 2019, up from 213 million in 2018.