Western Daily Press (Saturday)
BBC and ITV reveal price of BritBox service
THE BBC and ITV are gambling that licence fee-payers will be willing to fork out an additional £6 per month to stream their most popular shows.
Their joint subscription service BritBox will launch later this year at £5.99 a month.
The broadcasters said BritBox, which they hoped would counter competition from US giants such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, would cost “less than other streaming services”.
BritBox, billed as being “truly British”, will launch in the UK between October and December.
As well as box sets, it will feature new shows commissioned especially for the service.
The launch comes after global giants such as Netflix and Amazon made their mark on British homes.
But the BBC and ITV said there was “a real appetite among British viewers for a new British streaming service – in addition to their current subscriptions”.
The Competition Commission previously vetoed a similar joint British service.
ITV chief executive, Carolyn McCall, said the launch announcement was “a milestone moment”.
She said: “Subscription video on
demand is increasingly popular with consumers who love being able to watch what they want when they want to watch it.
“They are also happy to pay for this ease of access to quality content, and so BritBox is tapping into this, and a new revenue stream for UK public service broadcasters.”
She said BritBox would contain “the largest collection of British box sets ever – bringing the very best in past, present and future British programming and award-winning content to viewers all in one place”.
BBC director general, Tony Hall, said: “We have a world-beating TV industry with outstanding content. The BBC and ITV are at the centre of that.
“Together, we have been responsible for delivering the majority of ‘must-see’ moments on British TV over the last decade. That ‘must-see’ content will now be on BritBox…
“With a remit to be daring and different, many future classics will be commissioned and live on BritBox for the future.”
The first newly-commissioned show will be available to BritBox viewers from 2020.
Shows such as Love Island, Gentleman Jack, Gavin & Stacey, Victoria, Happy Valley, Broadchurch, Les Miserables, The Office and Benidorm will go on the service.
BritBox said the £5.99 cost in HD included multiple screens and devices.
Netflix announced earlier this year that it was raising prices.
The fee for a basic plan, which allows viewing on a single device and only in standard definition, remains unchanged at £5.99. But its standard plan, which lets customers watch two screens at a time and offers HD viewing, increased by £1 to £8.99 a month, while its premium offer, which allows for four screens at a time and offers ultra HD, went up by £2 to £11.99 a month.
Lord Hall has dismissed complaints that viewers will have to pay twice for its shows with the launch of the service. Some have questioned why they should pay again for BBC hits, having already been charged the £154.50 licence fee.
BritBox will be an ITV-controlled venture, with the broadcaster initially holding 90 per cent and the BBC holding 10 per cent of the equity.
The launch comes after the BBC announced that from June next year free TV licences will be restricted to over-75s who claim pension credit.