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BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, has paired with ITV to launch a new SVOD service called BritBox for the U.S. market.

The streaming service will be available in Q1 2017 and AMC Networks, which has a joint venture with BBC for cable channel BBC America, has invested in the service with a non-voting minority interest. BBC Worldwide and ITV share an equal majority stake in the joint venture.

BritBox will offer up a comprehensive collection of British content including dramas that have since been unavailable in the U.S. such as New Blood, from novelist Anthony Horowitz, Tutankhamun, The Moonstone and In The Dark from Ordinary Lies writer Danny Brocklehurst. Season premieres of Cold Feet and Silent Witness will also stream on the service alongside popular Brit soaps such as Eastenders, Emmerdale and Holby City, which will be available 24 hours after their UK broadcast.

ITV and BBC classics such as Brideshead Revisted, Pride and Prejudice, Inspector Morse, Keeping Up Appearances and Fawlty Towers will also feature on the service.

It will be available online as well as iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV and Chromecast platforms. Pricing will be available at launch and there is ambition to roll out to international markets.

The U.S. market for SVOD services is estimated to reach the $8B mark by the end of 2016, with some 110 million subscriptions.

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BBC and ITV’s BritBox Launches With ‘Fawlty Towers,’ ‘Prime Suspect,’ ‘Absolutely Fabulous’

BritBox, the streaming child of British media giants BBC Worldwide and ITV, has officially launched stateside.

For $6.99 a month, Americans get access to a plethora of past BBC and ITV-produced series — but the service will also be home to various fresh episodes of British soaps and dramas as little as 24 hours after their U.K. broadcast, including “EastEnders,” “Emmerdale,” “Holby City,” and “Casualty,” to start with. BritBox will feature the U.S. series premiere of dramas “New Blood,” from writer Anthony Horowitz, and “Tutankhamun” from writer Guy Burt, as well as the season premieres of drama favorites “Cold Feet” and “Silent Witness.”

Classic British comedies “Are You Being Served?,” “Fawlty Towers,” and the previously announced “Keeping Up Appearances” are exclusives to BritBox. “Blackadder” with Rowan Atkinson, the original version of “The Office” with Ricky Gervais, “Gavin & Stacey” with James Corden, and cult darling “Absolutely Fabulous” with Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders, will also be available.

On the mystery side, BritBox will have the exclusive rights to BBC’s “Miss Marple” starring Joan Hickson, “Inspector Morse” with John Thaw, and “Sherlock Holmes” starring Jeremy Brett. Other titles include Helen Mirren’s “Prime Suspect,” Agatha Christie’s “Poirot: The Early Cases” starring David Suchet, “Cracker” with “Harry Potter” star Robbie Coltrane, “Rosemary and Thyme” with Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris, and the premiere of “The Moonstone,” based on Wilkie Collins’s beloved novel.

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BBC and ITV's 'BritBox' streaming service arrives in the US

It has everything but the shows you want.

The BBC and ITV have banded together to launch their own subscription streaming service in the US. They've teased "BritBox" before, but now it's actually here, for $6.99 per month on the web, Apple TV and Android (Roku, Chromecast and iOS apps are in the works.) If you've wanted a Netflix equivalent for Top Gear, Doctor Who and The Great British Bake Off, however, you'll be sorely disappointed. At launch, the service is being propped up by older classics such as Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes (the one starring Jeremy Brett, not the Benedict Cumberbatch reboot.)

The two companies have, however, promised to release episodes of new and ongoing shows 24 hours after their British broadcast. These are mostly soaps, unfortunately -- think EastEnders, Emmerdale, Holby City and Casualty. Most of the BBC's heavy-hitters, it would seem, are being left out to ensure BBC America -- the cable and satellite channel joint-owned by BBC Worldwide and AMC -- remains attractive in the States.

That's not to say BritBox has no value, however. You'll find award-winning comedies such as Blackadder, Absolutely Fabulous and Gavin & Stacey (the show James Corden co-created, co-wrote and starred in). It's also the exclusive home for the complete series of Sharpe -- the Napoleonic Sean Bean extravaganza -- and will serve as the US premieres for the BBC's fresh crime drama New Blood, and ITV's Tutankhamun. All told, the Britbox team says there are "thousands" of hours to peruse. The problem, of course, will be quality, rather than quantity. If the library is packed with "filler" content, few people will want to pay for a monthly subscription.

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Red Dwarf Series 11 and Back Catalog Headed to BritBox

The quirky British science fiction comedy show Red Dwarf has a new home for its eleventh season. Coinciding with the launch of BBC Worldwide’s BritBox subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, the Emmy-award winning show will air its series 11 premiere and offer its entire back catalog to those who sign up as subscribers.

READ MORE - http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/red-d...ded-to-britbox

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