About this article

Read time:

4 minutes

Category:

Content we like, Opinion

Britbox and chill?

The demand for on demand TV has continued to rise over recent years. Netflix currently has over 139 million subscribers, Amazon Prime has more than 100 million users and the past couple of years has seen the likes of Apple, Disney and Sky launch their own streaming services. Now however, the UK is set to get its own streaming platform, Britbox.

The service is the joint vision of the BBC and ITV and promises to provide the biggest collection of British TV content ever assembled in one place, with must loved TV classics along with brand new content. Britbox is set to launch later this year and the broadcasters have confirmed the service will not affect their current catch up platforms.

The idea of watching live TV for some has become something of a rarity, therefore it’s unsurprising that UK broadcasters are nervous about the market power of Amazon and Netflix. More than 12 million households are signed up to at least one and traditional TV broadcasters are having to compete for viewers in an increasingly fragmented landscape. According to Ofcom the amount of time spent watching live TV has continued to decline. In 2017 the average amount of time spent watching broadcast television per day was 3 hours 23 minutes, down nine minutes from 2016 and down 38 minutes since 2012. Unsurprisingly, amongst viewers aged between 16 and 34, the declines were steeper and over 65’s watched four times as much broadcast television as children in 2017.

Experts are divided over the likely success of the new service. BritBox will be facing established competitor Netflix, who has been relishing in a golden period as the most popular streaming service on offer. Netflix boasts strong films, box sets such as Friends and Brooklyn Nine Nine and of course it has its own content including Stranger Things and House of Cards. Interestingly however, research commissioned by ITV shows that desire for UK-produced content is high, with 43% of homes interested in subscribing to a new service that features British shows, suggesting Britbox has the opportunity to fill a gap within the industry.

As more and more competitors enter the market, individuals are becoming reluctant to pay for every service available. However, much to the annoyance of most people you’re unable to find everything you want in one place. With this in mind, is it possible we’ll see a mass consolidation of services or will platforms continue to keep things separate in a bid to get us to buy into each platform? Only time will tell. In the meantime however, I’m going to binge watch Game of Thrones.

 

About this article

Read time:

4 minutes

Category:

Content we like, Opinion

Q&A with Alex Gladwin: What does it mean to be a trustee for an EOB?

Rules of engagement: do you need an AI policy?

Browse more blog posts

Posted on
byIsobelle Yoxall
As you may know by now, this year Skout went through the process of becoming an employee-owned business (EOB)! This is an exciting move that provides great opportunities for everyone connected with the business, not just for our employees, but for our clients and everyone we will work with in the future. As part of the process, an employee-owned trust...
Posted on
byClaire Lamb
In short, yes. But that answer would make this a really brief blog 😉. With the UK Government estimating that one in six UK organisations, nearly half a million companies, have embraced at least one AI technology, the chances are your employees are already using it – whether officially or unofficially. One thing that we discovered when we started to...
Posted on
byJames Weaver
In today’s digital-first world, we constantly receive breaking news and developing stories around the clock. The dawn of the smart phone and rise of social media has given us a world of information at our fingertips and major news organisations’ rolling coverage can be as theatrical and gripping as the plays of old. Just as Shakespearean tragedies gripped audiences, today...
Posted on
byRob Skinner
If you’re working in B2B marketing in the digital commerce technology sector you’ll know what an incredibly complex landscape it has become! As online buying both by consumers and businesses has evolved, the range of technologies available to help businesses selling or purchasing online or digitally has grown hugely. Today, your key audiences are being bombarded with marketing content covering...
Posted on
byJack Snell
Why was PR your chosen career?  Without it sounding like the biggest cliché in the industry, I just happened to fall into PR unintentionally. I applied to study journalism at Leeds Beckett University but they replied telling me that the course was already full, heart-breaking stuff 😔. Instead, they offered me a place on the public relations course, so I...
Posted on
byJames Bentley
You may have seen recently the brilliant news that Skout is now an employee-owned business as our founding shareholders, Rob Skinner and Claire Lamb, signed 100 per cent of the company’s ownership over to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) which acts on the behalf of our team. It’s a move that provides great opportunities for everyone connected with the business,...
Posted on
byClaire James
Generative AI (such as ChatGPT) has caused a bit of a storm in the marketing world but its power to transform is being embraced by other industries to significant advantage. In this blog I am looking specifically at the retail industry and how it is adopting GenAI to help shape the future of customer experience whilst also reducing costs. Creating...
Posted on
byLee Simpson
From Meet Ups to Expos, the tech industry is one that thrives on knowledge and best-practice sharing. Yet all too often tech events fail to hit the mark when it comes to offering tangible value, instead created by corporate machines as something of a vehicle for self-promotion.   Manchester’s Amy Newton is on a mission to change that, striving to reinvent...
Posted on
byRebecca Brown
AI has been the hot topic in our team meetings over the past few months, with the Skout team debating the pros and cons of its use. From using it to assist with desk research and providing inspiration for headlines through to transcribing interviews to help remove the need for extensive notetaking. Its flipside, however, has driven conversations around its...
Posted on
byHonor Williamson
As World Wellbeing Week draws to a close, we wanted to shine a light on wellbeing at work. While every area of wellbeing is hugely important in all aspects of life, it’s especially important in the workplace – we’re there nearly every day, after all! We spoke to Chris Snookes, Group Head of Marketing, Products and Markets at our client...

Send us a message

Download The B2B business relationship report

The B2B relationship renaissance – did digital kill it? The importance of relationships throughout the customer buying journey. Please complete the form below and receive a download link via email.