ITV And BBC’s New Streaming Platform BritBox Has Landed

You might remember hearing that the BBC and ITV were teaming up to launch a streaming platform to rival Netflix. Well, today it has finally arrived - and it sounds pretty epic.

Named BritBox, the new streaming platform will be a one pit stop for all your favourite box-sets and archive programmes from both channels.

But it's not just old shows that will feature on the platform, as they'll also have some brand new offerings, which have never featured on UK TV before.

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You can sign up now to receive 30 days free, and after that the service will cost £5.99 to keep on a rolling contract across multiple screens.

But be warned, you're never going to want to get rid.

ITV has included iconic boxsets such as Cold Feet, Vera and Prime Suspect in its offering, as well as all the old series of Love Island for your viewing delight.

ITV)

Meanwhile, exclusive BBC features include all seven series of the old Great British Bake Off, Gavin and Stacey, The Office, Luther, Broadchurch, Absolutely Fabulous, Downton Abbey and all 627 episodes of Doctor Who.

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Where do we start?

The first previously unaired programme will be Lambs Of God, which stars Jessica Barden, from The End of the F****** World, and The Handmaid's Tale's Ann Dowd, which has only so far been seen on Australian screens back in July.

Plus, ITV's group director for streaming, Reemah Sakaan recently teased there was a "whole slate of original programmes" in development. Exciting!

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And that's not all. Just in case you don't have enough to binge on, Channel 4 and Channel 5 have also now got on board, too, and will both start streaming their programmes on BritBox next year, alongside Comedy Central UK.

If you're toying with making the purchase, it might be worth comparing BritBox with some of the other streaming platforms out there.

Monthly, Netflix's basic package comes in at the exact same price of £5.99, while it costs slightly more at £8.99 if you're after a standard plan to use on more than one TV screen.

Meanwhile, Amazon Prime will also cost you £5.99, and you'll be able to use three TV screens simultaneously.

Now TV costs a marginally more expensive £8.99 for an entertainment pass, while YouTube Premium costs £11.99.

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Sakaan added: "Ostensibly the other streamers are US-focused so they make dramas for the US market, whereas BritBox is the faces, people and places that you know.

"The new battleground, quite often in streaming, are shows like Friends, which are 20 years old and are the top performers."

BritBox won't show all the channels' most popular programmes from today, waiting until they drop off iPlayer before featuring them on the platform.

There are some shows - like The Bodyguard and Peaky Blinders - which are already in deals with other streaming platforms, and so will also be delayed.

BritBox has already been going in the US for two years, and already has over 650,000 subscribers there.

Streaming platforms will be watching with eagle eyes to see how it goes down on British shores.

Tbh, they had us at Bake Off.

Topics: TV News, TV Entertainment, Netflix

Joanna Freedman

Joanna is a journalist at Tyla with a particular interest in highlighting women's issues and telling inspiring first person stories. She's also their resident foodie, and loves covering exciting new beauty launches, too. Contact her at [email protected].

@joannafreedman