BritBox, the streaming service backed by a joint venture between BBC Studios and ITV, has planned to expand its services to an extra 25 countries across the world.
The service, which aims to enhance legacy media platforms and rival Netflix and Amazon Prime, will expand across continents including Europe, Asia, and South America.
First launched in the UK back in November 2019, Britbox, which boasts the largest number of British TV boxsets internationally, already has over a million subscribers in the United States and Canada. It will also launch in Australia later this year.
Currently, BritBox allows North American subscribers exclusive premiers to series on the same day they launch in the UK, as well as access to soap operas like EastEnders the day after UK transmission.
BritBox has a large number of legacy boxsets, including Shetland and Vera, and has also announced new co-productions. These include The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, There She Goes, and The Bay.
Like Netflix and Amazon, BritBox have also announced a number of original commissions including A Spy Among Friends and The Beast Must Die.
Tim Davie, the CEO of BBC Studios and incoming BBC Director-General stated that “BritBox has very quickly found a place in viewers’ hearts and we know there is further appetite among international audiences who love great British content”.
Mr Davie also remarked that BritBox were “actively appraising new markets to introduce the service and are very excited about the imminent launch in Australia.”
Carolyn McCall, the CEO of ITV commented that “this international expansion plan will firmly establish BritBox as a global premium brand in a rapidly growing sector”.
Ms McCall also argued that “offering subscribers the best and biggest collection of British content has enabled BritBox to rapidly grow in our existing countries and as streaming continues to expand worldwide this roll out will give our distinctive streaming business truly international scale”.
Words by Noah Keate
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