Britbox strategy of the TV companies Work Experience Project by Emily Watts

Britbox is a subscription service whereby users can watch an extensive range of British TV content and films. This service is available in the UK, the US and Canada. In this PowerPoint, I will be investigating the strategy of the TV companies providing content to Britbox and whether it proves to be good value for money for customers

JUNE 2020 Are available programmes on Britbox also available on individual catch-up services? The content that is provided to users on Britbox is replicated on the individual channel catch up services, examples include BBC iPlayer and the ITV Hub. This is a key issue for Britbox as viewers can access these catch up services for free using their email address to create an account, therefore, meaning some customers may feel like the monthly fee of £5.99 will not be worth it for them as they will be paying for and accessing the same content.

As seen in the data to the right, when comparing the programmes provided on Britbox with the individual catch up services, it is evident that Channel’s 4 own service, All4, allows viewers to access the majority of its series as well as providing them with the most up to date episodes. However, the older series on Channel 4 are shown on both streaming services, whereas, the series where episodes are still being released are not completely shown on Britbox whilst the most up to date episodes are on All4. This means that Channel 4 are providing Britbox with non exclusive and outdated content whilst still allowing viewers to access it for free.

Similarly, BBC iPlayer have also provided Britbox with older and outdated content such as Only Fools and Horses but this content is exclusive to Britbox and not available on BBC iPlayer. But like All4, the more recent and up to date series, such as Sherlock, could be considered as a recent flagship series for the BBC and is only available on BBC iPlayer therefore, drawing in viewers to their own free streaming service rather than Britbox. In contrast to this, ITV provides Britbox customers with a much larger range of exclusive and recent content to viewers which is not present on the ITV Hub, therefore providing the most Examples of programmes provided by channels on Britbox cost-effective service to customers. There are still some issues with more recent series not and whether these can be found on individual catch up being available on Britbox, however, this occurs less frequently than ITV’s fellow Britbox services Key providers. We can assume that ITV are contributing more to Britbox and are subsequently Red - Programme is not accessible more invested in its success. Yellow - Some episodes of the programme are accessible

Green - All episodes are accessible

Title 2 More about the content provided by Britbox

There are two TV providers at the forefront of contributing content to Britbox, these being the BBC and ITV who both provide a range of box sets as well as miniseries. Meanwhile, Channel 4 and Channel 5 provide very little as well as limited content, for example Channel 5 only contributes documentaries. This is due to both companies having no equity share within the streaming platform. A key place where this is demonstrated is on the A-Z page on the Britbox website. Here, viewers can access the majority of box sets provided by the streaming service. Whilst looking at the page, it can be immediately observed that there is a lack of Channel 4 and Channel 5 content whilst the field is saturated with programmes from both the BBC and ITV. The data below shows the percentage of programmes offered by each television channel. When adding up the content from the two main providers, BBC and ITV, this equals a staggering 85% of all content. This therefore suggests, that BBC and ITV are more invested in the success of the Britbox streaming service which coincides with them having shares within the company.

Title 3 More about the content provided by Britbox

Another key issue raised with the content provided by the streaming service is how recent is this content? Are there any reasons for customers to pay for Britbox if programmes are outdated and therefore have a lack of appeal? Despite the BBC and ITV contributing a large amount of content, almost a quarter of the samples for each broadcaster ended before the 21st century and therefore can be classed as outdated. On the other hand, despite Channel 4 and 5 providing a smaller percentage of content to Britbox, this content is more up to date with only 8% of Channel 4 programmes having ended pre-2000 and Channel 5 only providing content from the 21st century. However, overall it can be seen that the majority of box sets provided to viewers by the streaming service are either on going or have ended in recent years. Therefore this spread of content would have mass appeal to viewers with a range of ages.

4 Mix of content on Britbox

Britbox provides a variety of content which spans over the 3 main types of TV entertainment – movies, TV series and miniseries. The data to the right represents the mix between these three outlets in a sample size of 100 taken from the Britbox home page. As seen in the pie chart, TV series dominate the content offered by Britbox. This is predominantly due to BBC and ITV mostly creating content for the silver screen rather than making movies, unless it is a continuation of a TV series as a film. Furthermore, the movies provided on the streaming platform is dominated by ‘Classic Films’ with a whole page dedicated to them. The title ‘Classic Films’ majorly refers to movies created in the mid 20th century. This content would particularly appeal to the older audience yet still can be enjoyed by younger audiences.

5 This row on the home page allows Britbox Home Page viewers to gain access to different genres of the content provided by The Britbox home page Britbox as well as advertising some immediately advertises the most recent, exclusive content that popular, long running TV shows like customers of the streaming service Doctor Who and Midsomer Murders. can access. This can be interpreted When scrolling through the page, many as the most appealing and enticing banners like these appear to be content to viewers and therefore advertising popular genres that would the company wants to capitalise on grip viewers including ‘Soapbox’ as well this exclusivity by advertising them more on the home page. as ‘Reality check’. Therefore providing easy access to an extensive range of much-loved soap and reality programmes. The banners are also The home page offers a shown on the home page as individual ‘recommended for you’ section rows meaning that comedies, crime which offer programmes specific dramas as well as reality TV is to an individual’s viewing history. particularly being pushed due to their This therefore creates a viewer popularity. Aninterestingobservationis friendly page which is easy to that as well as these popular genres, navigate. This viewer friendly Britbox is also pushing viewers towards aspect of Britbox is continued the older programmes, perhaps due to throughout the introduction of a large share of the content on Britbox the ‘Recently Added’ section. New being outdated. content is always being added and updated which also appeals to At the end of the home page, content is then organized into its original TV channel prospective viewers to join provider. With BBC and ITV at the top, followed by Channel 4 and Channel 5. This once Britbox. The page allows users to again replicates the equity shares of the company as there is an abundance of BBC and see the expanding content of the ITV programmes being advertised whilst Channel 4 and 5 content is more dispersed streaming service. amongst the home page.

6 Britbox in comparison to other streaming sites

In comparison to other popular streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+, it can be seen that Britbox provides a cheaper service than its competitors. At a reasonable cost of £5.99 per month it is less expensive than the average priced streaming services of £7.24, therefore having mass appeal to prospective customers. Britbox’s main competitor Netflix offers an extensive range of plans offering differing picture definition and amount of devices simultaneously watching. Similar to Britbox, Netflix offers a £5.99 plan, however, this is in standard definition and only allows the customer to watch on one device, which is impractical to customers who use the service as a platform. The most expensive plan that Netflix offers costs £11.99 which allows up to 4 devices simultaneously as well as providing the content in Ultra HD. However, despite Britbox offering a cheaper service to viewers, the Netflix brand has prestige amongst the subscription community as it attracts a huge amount of customers on a yearly basis. For example, in 2020 Netflix has over 182 million people subscribing. These pricing figures are shown in the table below and a clear comparison has been made between the prices of the different streaming services. Netflix and Amazon Prime are above average and Britbox and Disney+ are below average. The two services that are above average offer streaming as well as additional extras. For example, Netflix subscribers can watch programs on multiple devices whilst Amazon Prime subscribers have free next day delivery on the Amazon retail site. However, contrary to this, Britbox and Disney+ are a cheaper price, below the average and only allow viewers to watch on just one device, and do not offer another extra incentives.

In conclusion, due to Britbox being a new subscription service it has not built its brand as extensively as Netflix has previously done and therefore has only just over 1 million viewers in the US and Canada, with the UK figures not yet being released. A key part of Britbox’s appeal to the audience is that it has the largest streaming collection of British TV ever with exclusive content which is not accessible on other competing streaming rivals. This is the only thing that differentiates Britbox from the other streaming services. Consequential to Britbox forming, the vast majority of British TV shows were removed from Netflix in 2019-2020 in order to create this exclusivity for Britbox and therefore enticing not only British clients but also those from the US and Canada.

7 Disclaimer

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