Britbox UK - UK SVoD Platform.

Ah that is a shame, hope that changes before the Olympics. Bit rate could do with bumping up a bit as well.


I was at a sports industry conference a couple of weeks ago (to see what could be picked up / applied for news). One of the panels was a ‘state of the industry’ discussion with executives from BT Sport, DAZN and Eurosport. Streaming at 50p was mentioned by the COO of BT Sport (and I think the VP of broadcast and tech for DAZN) as one of the improvements that could be made that immediately delivered a benefit to all customers. So Eurosport and Britbox need to sort that out!

Rank? ITV own the library from Carlton days.

Seems about right, thanks.

Any news on Chromecast availability?

Unfortunately, Britbox subscription cancelled because of lack of Fire Stick app.

What a pity they didn't get this sorted sooner.

No I tried at the weekend. Chromecast icon doesnt show (Samsung S10 5G) nor will it play on screen mirroring.

Chromecast support is due in "early 2020", according to recent Twitter posts by Brit Box Help.

The marketing for this is pretty poor. The "opening and closing doors" promo whilst Graham Norton feigns enthusiasm in linking the characters together is confusing, and their billboards which use FLOWCHARTS are even worse.

They need to weave together a grand promo showcasing the very best of their content. Something like this:



Not something that looks like the result of a team pitch on The Apprentice.

I've noticed recently there only seems to now be two ways to do extended trailers for anything (in this country anyway) - the Sky way and "the other way".

Sky might charge a fortune for pay TV but there's no denying that their promos for anything they want to promote on their flagship channels or services look really good, glossy and eye catching, in fact their recent one for the Sky Cinema Christmas popup channel is in exactly the same style as the Disney promo posted above, using characters from the films they have.

"The other way" seems flat by comparison, stringing together random clips and segments with a voiceover and linking segments with some big name, and yes it does come across as looking like something you'd see on The Apprentice. It was a common style of doing them in the 1980s and 1990s and the style still resurfaces on occasion with a bit of "gloss" on it.

I will admit I haven't seen the Graham Norton promo but I've found some others (including from when the concept was first tooted) and well I wasn't convinced then and I'm still not convinced now...

I noticed they've added a load of seasonal specials of comedy programmes.

Harry Enfield's Yule Log Chums: Should be in widescreen (shown as such every on year on Gold), uses 4:3 copy.

French and Saunders 1998-2002 specials: Should be in widescreen, use 14:9/4:3 copies (apart from the 1999 Easter special oddly).

A Bit of Fry & Laurie '1987 Christmas Special': Isn't a Christmas special at all, it's just the pilot that was shown on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1987. Britbox version cuts about five minutes out including an entire sketch, presumably this is the 30 minute edit that was shown the next year on BBC2.

Also the 2006 Royle Family special 'The Queen of Sheba' is split into two parts for some reason.

Another interesting thing - the Vicar of Dibley New Year's Day 2005 episode still has the Make Poverty History scene at the end which broke the BBC's own impartiality guidelines. This now gets cut out when Gold show it.

I'm sure I've seen Gold show both versions at one time or another, I could be misremembering though. The version without it has also been re-edited so that there's end credits (which weren't there on the original broadcast) and the joke to Alice is after them rather than at the start.