BritBox US Now Wholly Owned by the BBC

BritBox was initially launched at the beginning of March 2017, as a joint project between the BBC and ITV. At the time, it was the first streaming service that promised to bring British programming straight out of the U.K. from the BBC and ITV directly to Americans without them needing to illegally VPN the BBC iPlayer or ITV's streaming service of the era. That was the entire point of launching the service for the two networks, which were both quite aware of how much extra traffic was illegally coming from across the pond.

Unfortunately, as with most streaming services, the initial offering did not live up to the hype. Sure, BritBox had the entire Doctor Who collection from 1963-1989 and a whole lot of Red Dwarf, but it wasn't bringing over the BBC iPlayer wholesale, nor was it transferring ITV's primary library. It couldn't, as most of the popular stuff was already tied up in years-long streaming contracts elsewhere, highly lucrative contracts. What straight from the U.K. series it did have was the stuff other networks didn't want. It soon found itself at a disadvantage in the American market with no original content. At the same time, British consumers demanded to know why Americans had a BritBox, and they did not.

It's been seven tumultuous years since then, as BritBox UK was launched, only for ITV to buy out the BBC's half and fold the entire enterprise into ITVX. (After all, Brits don't need a BritBox. They have one, it's their telly.) But just as the streaming service rounds to its seventh anniversary, turnabout has become fair play as the BBC announced today, March 1, 2024, that it has bought out ITV from BritBox International and now wholly owns the British branded streamer in the eight countries where it is available — the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Africa, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.