The BBC-owned streaming service Britbox has today announced an expansion to its service, offering subscribers an expanded library of content and the addition of three curated linear channels.
Added to the Britbox library are buzzy new exclusive series Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero, Outrageous, Fear, and Death Valley. They will be joined with the latest seasons of popular shows Shetland and The Bay. Later in the year will see the return of exclusive shows The Cleaner, Professor T, and Karen Pirie.
Talking to Mediaweek, Britbox Australia General Manager Moira Hogan spoke about the expanded lineup: “We are focused on continuing to deliver on those awesome crime mysteries, dramas, comedies. We are expanding the variety of genres on our service, so we’re doing more light entertainment, so new and classic comedy, but also adding some of the quiz comedies onto the service, and we’re expanding into documentary series. Particularly around nature science documentaries, adventure travel and true crime is what we’re expanding on the service.”
Moira Hogan, Executive Vice President of International Markets and
General Manager of BritBox Australia
The most noticeable addition to the Britbox service will be three new curated linear channels: BBC First, BBC Entertain, and BBC Select. They will stream in Australia at 1080p adaptive streaming.
BBC had previously operated a BBC First linear channel in Australia, available on Foxtel and Fetch TV. The channel was closed in July of last year and replaced, on Fetch TV, with BBC Drama.
The new linear channels on Britbox offer an alternative way to watch the on-demand content available on the platform.
“It reflects entirely the on-demand catalogue. The linear streams are there to be a real complement to that on-demand viewing experience. We know that’s what our customers want primarily. We’re not moving away from on-demand, we’re a streaming service. Adding linear helps customers find something to instantly watch,” Hogan said.
International studios like Disney and Warner Bros Discovery reorientated their distribution strategy in Australia (and globally) to make their streaming platforms the go-to destination to see first window content from their respective studios. The BBC is taking a more flexible approach where it will place some exclusive content on Britbox, but will also sell shows to other local services.
“We’re really pleased on BritBox to be the home of first run territory premiere series for Call The Midwife, Silent Witness, Death in Paradise, and we’ve expanded into a bunch of other shows as well. But we’re pretty confident as part of the BBC there’s lots of content to go around, and there’s lots of partnerships that are still there for BBC content to reach.
“BBC Studios being the commercial arm of the BBC… they’re fantastic at finding the right audiences and reaching the right audiences with their content and from BritBox’s perspective, we’re really focused on our customer. We know what content brings them in, what they watch when they come in, and what they watch to stay on BritBox,” Hogan said.
The BBC already operates linear FAST channels in the local market. Through a deal with Nine, 9Now viewers can watch BBC-channels BBC Comedy, BBC Earth, BBC Food, BBC Home & Garden, Top Gear UK, and Antiques Roadshow. There are no immediate plans to integrate these channels with the new channels on Britbox.
There are also no plans to use the launch of the linear channels as a way to revive kids-focused channels like CBeebies or BBC Kids, which were removed from Fetch TV in October.
This Britbox customer is at the centre of this current evolution of the Britbox service, with changes made to address feedback offered.
“We’ve done a lot of consumer research and what our customers have told us is they really want more of the latest series of shows they really love on BritBox, which is why we focused on those territory premieres and we’re adding lots of new territory premieres to attract new audiences as well. It’s a really considered decision for us, the type of shows that we’re releasing and that we’re adding into the service to add extra value to customers,” Hogan said.
That customer experience is also driving efforts to bring UK content to Australian viewers faster where possible.
“We certainly take a title-by-title approach to when we can bring content out faster, and we’ve done a number of titles that we have kind of put on the service pretty quickly after UK transmission. Certain events… like we’ve just done the Chelsea Flower Show and the BAFTA TV Awards, but also we’ve added the latest series of drama series Call The Midwife, Death in Paradise… And we’re always trying to bring content to our audiences as quick as we possibly can based on the content rights, the licensing, and the kind of resourcing that’s required to do it. It’s very much a title-by-title decision for us,” Hogan said.