BritBox will be made available to audiences around the world in the coming years. Its rollout plans for one European country are now in the public domain.
Last week, ITV confirmed BritBox would become available across Scandinavia later this year. Now it’s been revealed that expansion in other parts of Europe is planned for next year.
Austria’s Federal Competition Authority has posted details of a statutory notification made by BBC Studios and Granada Media (part of ITV). The notification confirms plans to launch the subscription video-on-demand service in the Alpine country in 2023.
The authority confirms both companies have plans to expand the activities of their existing 50/50 joint venture Britbox International Limited (BBI) in Austria, either “by establishing a new wholly-owned subsidiary of BBI in Austria or registering a branch office of BBI in Austria”.
In addition to Austria, the service is also expected to launch in other central and southern European countries.
BritBox International is already available in the USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa.
Although the BBC has sold its stake in BritBox UK, it still retains a share in BritBox International.
BritBox has variations in its programme library in each country, depending on the status of existing licensing agreements with other broadcasters.
Modest expectations
ITV hopes BritBox will have 10-12 million non-UK subscribers by 2030. However, this will be just a drop in the ocean compared to the 100s of million subscribers attracted to Netflix or Disney+ by the end of the decade.
2.4 million users currently subscribe to BritBox outside of the UK. This is led by the US version of BritBox, which launched five years ago. The US version makes selected ITV programmes available on the same day to audiences across the Atlantic.
As part of its drive to streaming services, ITV closed its international channel ITV Choice. The channel closed in 2019 in Asia and Malta and then in June 2020 in South Africa. For the BBC, global expansion of BritBox is in lieu of a global iPlayer service.