BritBox CEO Talks New BBC Ownership

Since February 2024, questions about BritBox have become a regular feature of the Telly Visions inbox. Many of our readers have questions about what's happening to the niche service, technically called "BritBox International," here in the US since the surprise announcement that the BBC was buying out ITV's half of the partnership. But you readers aren't the only ones who have questions; we here at Telly Visions have also been monitoring the changes coming to our favorite service outside of the PBS system. Now, Robert Schildhouse, promoted to President of BritBox North America and General Manager of BritBox International after the sale, is coming forward to answer questions.

A little background for those who have asked us if BritBox is going away in America: No, it is not. However, the confusion is easy to understand, as the streaming service had been split in two by the time the BBC bought out the company in February 2024.

In 2017, BritBox was launched as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV to encourage Americans to stop VPNing iPlayer and (to a much lesser extent) ITV's streaming service. However, upon launch, British citizens, who are used to having exclusionary services paid for by their taxes and government, wanted to know why there was a British Streamer they didn't have access to. To keep them happy, the two companies launched BritBox UK and began to make original content for both the US and UK markets, since the reruns Americans were getting were already available on ITV and the BBC.