EE Mobile Become Exclusive UK Partner for Netflix Rival BritBox

Mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that they’ve become the exclusive partner for the new BritBox video streaming service, which among other things means that customers of their existing Pay Monthly mobile and tablet (4G and 5G) plans will receive a free 6 subscription to the service (starting on 13th March 2020).

The service carries popular British TV shows from both of the major broadcasters (BBC and ITV) and, after initially launching in the USA and Canada, it has now become commercially available across the UK. Subscribers normally pay £5.99 a month for access (after a free 30 day trial) to what is essentially a historical archive of TV shows. By comparison the BBC’s iPlayer and ITV’s Hub usually only make catch-up content available for a limited period of time.

On top of EE’s offer of 6 months free service, the operator has confirmed that any related BritBox data usage (mobile broadband) during this period will also come at no extra cost. After the initial free period ends, customers will then be able to choose whether they continue paying for BritBox, which can be done directly through their EE bill.

Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer Division, said:

“The UK is the birthplace of some of the most iconic TV shows in the world – from Top Gear to Downton Abbey. By partnering with BritBox, we’re giving our customers access to the best British dramas, comedies and films, so they can stream them wherever they are, at home or on the move, thanks to our superfast 4G and 5G mobile network.”

We should add that EE’s customers can also use the offer to access BritBox via a wide range of Smart TVs, as well as streaming devices including Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Google Chromecast. Support for YouView (IPTV) is also said to be in development.

The move makes sense for EE, although arguably BritBox itself remains somewhat controversial given that many of the programmes on offer have technically been supported by TV licence fee payments (in fairness the same argument could be used against commercial DVD/Blu-Ray releases of popular shows but these still exist).