BBC and ITV Announce UK 'BritBox' Streaming Service to Rival Netflix

I already (begrudgingly) pay a TV License so that I can watch the BBC via live TV and the iPlayer service, but they want me to pay another subscription fee??
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Wait for it, someone will mention the TV License.........

Well yeah. Obviously

Seems to me that this would be a double-dip for UK viewers and more than a bit cheeky because the content has already been paid for at least once over by licence fee payers and advertisers.

However, for non-UK viewers it would open up 40-50 years worth of quite good telly. And maybe earn the BBC enough global revenue to lower the licence fee and ITV enough to reduce their ad breaks to say 10 mins an hour instead of 22.

PS. That last sentence was, of course, monumentally sarcastic.

I’m not sure people understand how the license fee works.

The license fee covers “live broadcasts” and iPlayer, which mostly comprises of a 30 day catchup service. Some programmes are hosted for longer depending on who produced it and for which service. A lot of the content is owned by independent production companies and then licensed to the BBC, same with all the terrestrial UK broadcasters.

The BBC, here, are offering a new service. Post catch up which is clearly way above and beyond live broadcast and the 30 day catch up. People seem fine watching BBC content on Netflix and Amazon Prime, for an additional fee, after this initial free shelf life, so it makes sense for the BBC to do the same in order to ensure more of the aftersales is sent their way.

My main concern however, is that many of these newly announced alternatives to Netflix won’t last very long as there’ll be too many of them, with too much content competing for our wallets. They’ll end up having to be very niche and possibly hosting exclusive content. The BBC and the indies supplying them, rely on coproduction money for its bigger programmes, sometimes with Netflix contributing so not all the content will be exclusive... but Britbox sounds pretty niche for overseas markets! Hopefully it will work for them. It might be better if more UK broadcasters were on board too.

Wait for it, someone will mention the TV License.........

ITV and BBC unfortunately are two TV services that users have a good up-to-50-years-worth of user experience where we don't pay for this, because we've already paid. So it'll take quite an offer to change hearts and minds and get people to pony up for this.

***Edit*** Oi, you lot above me in the comments! Yeah, it's a bit hard to talk about this topic without mentioning that particular room sized elephant.

As both the BBC and ITV have to convert those 10-50 year old tapes to digital, a fiver a month might not be a bad price for 40 years of content (and is it's not live/near-live, or iplayer, no need for TV Licence). To make it really work they would have to get BBC Studios to stop selling the content to Netflix and Amazon, making it a singular place to get the content, much like Disney is moving to right now.

People seem fine watching BBC content on Netflix and Amazon Prime, for an additional fee, after this initial free shelf life, so it makes sense for the BBC to do the same in order to ensure more of the aftersales is sent their way.

I also wouldn't be at all surprised if the BBC and ITV now greatly reduce, if not remove their content from Amazon Prime and Netflix, at least in the UK.

Yes, there’s a BBC licence fee. No, it doesn’t bring in enough money to cover everything the BBC does. It’s not a difficult concept.

Think yourself lucky you don’t live here in Ireland, where we pay a licence fee *and* all the channels we pay it for still have adverts.

So… TV License £12.50/month
Britbox £5 (?)

£17.50 / month…

Hmmm. Nope.
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Good luck with that if this endeavour comes with a price tag that doesn't equate to "Free" for the UK market. We are all quite happy (or unhappy, dependent on personal stance) paying that pesky license fee thing to double dip on this nonsense.

ITV and BBC unfortunately are two TV services that users have a good up-to-50-years-worth of user experience where we don't pay for this, because we've already paid. So it'll take quite an offer to change hearts and minds and get people to pony up for this.

***Edit*** Oi, you lot above me in the comments! Yeah, it's a bit hard to talk about this topic without mentioning that particular room sized elephant.

Definitely.

No thanks - I’ve already paid for the content once. And “britbox”? Terrible name.

Yes, there’s a BBC licence fee. No, it doesn’t bring in enough money to cover everything the BBC does. It’s not a difficult concept.

Well then Auntie can trim her gravy train of vastly overpaid "talent".
That'll save a bit…
/s