BritBox
BritBox is an international online streaming subscription service for viewing BBC and ITV shows. A collaboration between BBC Studios and ITV plc, the service offers viewers access to episodes of Doctor Who from across the show's complete history, dependent on region.
Having been announced in December 2016 and debuting in the US on 7 March 2017, it advertised itself as "the exclusive streaming home of Classic Doctor Who". Though it did not, on launch, serve all available episodes of the classic era, it did offer many of the stories from seasons 1 through 26. In the wake of contract expiration with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, it became the only US-based streaming service on which most Americans could find televised adventures of the First through Seventh Doctors.[1]
BritBox was later made available in Canada on 15 February 2018.[2]
Although it was originally only rumoured to launch in the United Kingdom,[3] proposals for a UK launch were finalised on 27 February 2019, with the service launching on 7 November 2019.
All of classic Doctor Who was made available to watch on Boxing Day 2019, from First through Eighth Doctors, with the exception of yet-to-be-recreated lost 60s era stories.[4] This was promoted by a trailer narrated by Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker.[5] However, this did not happen for American subscribers. They did not have The TV Movie, the animated stories, nor the missing stories.
On 24 February 2020, a large number of episodes were removed from BritBox temporarily due to "technical issues". They were later restored after this had been fixed. The stories were all of Season 1, 2 and 3; some of Season 5 and 6; all of Season 8 and 10; all but one from Season 11; all of Season 16, 18 19, 20, 22 and 23 and some of Season 24.[6]
Following fan concerns about BritBox's decision to keep airing the 1977 story The Talons of Weng-Chiang, a racially controversial story, BritBox decided to put up a trigger warning saying "Contains stereotypes that some may find offensive".[7]
On 19 August 2021, the full five series of The Sarah Jane Adventures was made available to watch on the streaming service.[8]
On 23 December, BritBox added the Second Doctor missing stories-made animation The Faceless Ones and Fury from the Deep for their Christmas lineup.[9]
On 31 March 2023, all Doctor Who content was removed from BritBox Australia, presumably as part of the Disney+ international distribution deal. BritBox advised the series would remain available on the service in the UK, even though ITV had bought out the BBC’s share in the UK, as they had secured a long term content partnership.[10]
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bbc-worldwide-itv-svod-venture-britbox-launches-699-monthly-price-983887
- ↑ https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/britbox-launch-canada/
- ↑ https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a26589425/classic-doctor-who-streaming/
- ↑ https://www.google.dk/amp/s/www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2019-11-07/doctor-who-britbox-watch-stream/amp/
- ↑ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MhM7m9IKWbM
- ↑ https://www.radiotimes.com/news/on-demand/2020-02-25/doctor-who-episodes-missing-britbox/
- ↑ https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a31633239/doctor-who-trigger-warnings-britbox/
- ↑ https://cultbox.co.uk/news/sarah-jane-adventures-and-more-cult-shows-join-britbox-the-same-day
- ↑ https://cultbox.co.uk/news/doctor-who-animations-coming-to-britbox-for-christmas-2021
- ↑ https://www.tvzoneuk.com/post/drwho-britbox2023
