TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      MTN hires outgoing Icasa CEO Willington Ngwepe into top role

      16 August 2022

      Rain in embarrassing climbdown over Telkom statement

      16 August 2022

      Jo’burg to issue RFP for 500MW of electricity ‘within weeks’

      16 August 2022

      Load shedding returns, and may last until Thursday

      16 August 2022

      Coal miner Seriti plans R12-billion Mpumalanga wind farm

      16 August 2022
    • World

      Semiconductor boom turns to bust

      16 August 2022

      Tencent plans to offload R400-billion Meituan stake: sources

      16 August 2022

      Ether leaps higher on verge of Merge

      16 August 2022

      Institutions eye crypto but retail investors remain nervous

      15 August 2022

      Tencent woes mount, even after $560-billion selloff

      12 August 2022
    • In-depth

      African unicorn Flutterwave battles fires on multiple fronts

      11 August 2022

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022

      E-mail scams are getting chillingly personal

      17 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      Qush on infosec: why prevention is always better than cure

      11 August 2022

      e4’s Adri Führi on encouraging more women into tech careers

      10 August 2022

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022
    • Opinion

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Africa Data Centres
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Sections»Broadcasting and Media»ITV, BBC agree on streaming venture to take on Netflix

    ITV, BBC agree on streaming venture to take on Netflix

    Broadcasting and Media By Agency Staff19 July 2019
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    ITV and the British Broadcasting Corporation have reached an agreement on a UK streaming venture, as they seek to respond to the incursion from digital rivals including Netflix.

    The BritBox service will launch in the final three months of 2019 and cost £5.99/month for high-definition programming on multiple televisions and devices, the companies said in a statement on Friday after months of discussions. That’s cheaper than Netflix’s £8.99 subscription fee for its standard service in the UK.

    BritBox is part of ITV CEO Carolyn McCall’s push to diversify revenue away from traditional TV, as consumers seek to watch content whenever they want and advertisers increasingly direct more spending online. Shares of ITV, the country’s biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster, were up 1.3% as of 9.02am in London.

    The companies also plan to commission new original series and pull in some shows currently licensed out to other services

    “After several delays, confirmation of launch is good news,” Conor O’Shea, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, wrote in a note. There is a market for local content to complement Netflix’s offering, but it’s too early to judge whether the quality of the content will win over UK consumers with multiple subscription alternatives, O’Shea wrote.

    European broadcasters are increasingly coming together to pursue streaming to try to gain scale and share the cost of new platforms as they respond to US rivals Netflix and Amazon.com moving into local markets.

    There’s concern among some industry observers that the efforts come too late, however. ITV and the BBC were part of a group of British broadcasters that had tried to pool their content online in 2007, but were blocked by regulators fearing they would prevent new entrants.

    Original series

    BritBox will include previously shown episodes of ITV and BBC series, such as Love Island and Gentleman Jack. The companies also plan to commission new original series and pull in some shows currently licensed out to other subscription video-on-demand services once those agreements expire.

    ITV will own 90% of the equity in the new venture, while the BBC will own the remaining 10% and have an option to acquire additional shares up to 25% over time.

    UK communications regulator Ofcom has given a provisional green light to the BBC’s involvement in BritBox and said it’s unlikely to gain an unfair competitive advantage from the streaming service. The publicly funded corporation has strict rules over its commercial activities.

    The BBC and ITV launched a similar service called Britbox in North America in 2017. It now has 650 000 subscribers, and McCall said on Friday that it was “proving to be very successful, exceeding its targets”.  — Reported by Greg Ritchie, (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP

    BBC ITV Netflix top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleBranson almost ‘ready to head into space’
    Next Article South Africa set to name ‘bad cop’ to oversee Eskom rescue

    Related Posts

    MTN hires outgoing Icasa CEO Willington Ngwepe into top role

    16 August 2022

    Rain in embarrassing climbdown over Telkom statement

    16 August 2022

    Jo’burg to issue RFP for 500MW of electricity ‘within weeks’

    16 August 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    HPE SimpliVity: addressing SMBs’ data conundrums

    16 August 2022

    Digital transformation – don’t get caught unprepared

    16 August 2022

    Seven reasons your business needs IP surveillance cameras

    15 August 2022
    Opinion

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.