Berenberg: ‘Britbox uncompelling’
September 11, 2019
Berenberg Bank says Apple TV+ adds to the pressure on Britbox and that the ITV/BBC service will struggle to penetrate against global players.
The bank said: “Against the backdrop of these well-funded services with aggressive pricing, we do not see a strong rationale for take-up of Britbox. The budget for original programming will inevitably be small – less than £100 million – against multi-billions for the US-backed services. The bulk of the content will thus be that which has been available on free-to-air. We struggle to see the USP for Britbox in this environment.”
The bank added that ITV, which has a 90 per cent stake in Britbox, is “between a rock and a hard place” and pointed to its disastrous foray into DTT pay-TV with On TV, which sank in the face of competition from Sky. The implication being it is late to a market full of stronger competitors – again.