BBC Reportedly Developing Netflix Competitor With The Working Title ‘Britflix’

The BBC, which is partially funded by the British government, is reportedly in the early stages of developing a local competitor to American streaming services like Netlfix and Amazon Prime that has the working title ‘Britflix.’

The service would be created in collaboration with the BBC’s chief local competitor, ITV, and delivered via iPlayer, the BBC’s longstanding digital platform, according to The Telegraph, which was first to report the news. A similar collaboration between the BBC and ITV in 2009 was blocked by regulators for anti-competitive reasons.

“We’re moving into a different world where more and more content is going to be made available on demand,” culture secretary John Whittingdale said of the BBC’s plans. “Collaboration with other broadcasters and other production companies we think is important…There may come a moment in the future where all television is delivered online.”

In addition to archived BBC content, the broadcaster would also commission original series for the service. However, BBC has said that its existing content will remain as is and not live behind any forthcoming paywalls.

Last week, the British government unveiled a white paper outlining the future of the BBC for the next several decades that called for the organization to create “some form of additional subscription services,” The Telegraph reports.

Nevertheless, the so-called Britflix service may be slightly late to the streaming party. Netflix started offering streaming back in 2007, and launched in the UK in early 2012.