ITV has announced that an agreement has been reached between BritBox and Viacom, which owns Channel 5 and Comedy Central, to make hundreds of hours of content available on the soon-to-launch Netflix rival. Channel 5 will provide factual and entertainment content, while Comedy Central UK will provide hours of British comedy.
The idea behind BritBox is that those involved will charge a £5.99 per month fee and host content that has expired on their respective catch-up services. Similarly, box-sets from Channel 5 will appear on BritBox after they have run their 30 day catch-up period on the My5 catch-up service.
Commenting on the news, Arran Tindall, Senior Vice President, Commercial & Content Distribution, Viacom International Media Networks, said:
“Under Viacom’s ownership we have significantly increased Channel 5’s investment in original UK content and we’re delighted to bring our popular homegrown content to an even wider audience through BritBox, alongside a selection of Comedy Central’s much-loved UK programming.”
BBC and ITV announced earlier this year that the BritBox streaming services, which is already available in the U.S. and Canada, would be making it to the U.K. sometime between October and the end of the year. Customers will be able to get HD content on multiple screens for just £5.99 per month, the same amount Netflix charges for standard definition content.