Netflix fans everywhere, you have a new rival. And it's taken the form of Britflix from BBC.
According to The Telegraph, BBC is set to launch a British rival to Netflix, with the working name Britflix, after the go-ahead from John Wittingdale, the culture secretary for subscription streaming. Britflix is believed to have been a collaboration between BBC and ITV. And while it's still in its early phases of development, hopes are high for the project, despite any controversies surrounding it.
“We’re moving into a different world where more and more content is going to be made available on demand," said Wittingdale. "Collaboration with other broadcasters and other production companies we think is important."
Wittingdale suggested the service could take over an already existing iPlayer service, to provide British residents with a library of varied content.
Last year, Wittingdale alluded to the possibility of an online subscription service when speaking about the changes he planned for the BBC.
The last time such a project was attempted was back in 2009 with Project Kangaroo. The collaboration ended up being blocked by competition regulators, which, in retrospect, was a shortsighted decision given the hold American giants had in terms of online subscription services.