How can you get BritBox for your Smart TV? Smart TVs can download apps and connect to the Internet, so it’s easy to get BritBox there. Just download the app, buy a subscription, and run it on your Smart TV.
BritBox might seem redundant to regular U.K. watchers of Netflix or the free VOD services of iPlayer (BBC) and Hub Operator (ITV). However, an ad-free subscription service that offers an expansive archive of 300 TV box sets that permanently has the episodes has their appeal.
Unlike iPlayer (which gets rid of its new episodes in a year) or Hub Operator (which gets rids of its new episodes in 30 days), you can check out BritBox’s offerings for EastEnders or Coronation Street at any time. S
How to Get BritBox on Smart TV
In order to get BritBox on your smart TV, it depends on how smart it is. Can it download apps? Then you can use its Android or Apple TV operating system in order to download the BritBox app and subscribe to the BritBox service in order to watch the best that Britain or the U.K. has to offer.
Read more: How to Install BritBox on Roku?
If your smart TV is instead a primitive HDTV with HDMI or USB connectivity, you can instead use media player devices like Amazon Fire TV Stick or Roku Stick in order to fire up your TV and view services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video along with BritBox.
The VOD service is also supported by smart TVs from Panasonic and Samsung. You can also watch it via streaming devices such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Chromecast, Roku TV, and Roku Media Players.
How Does BritBox Compare to Netflix?
BritBox is called the Netflix for U.K. content. Therefore, unlike streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, it offers mostly British film and television as opposed to them offering mostly American film and television. They particularly offer classics like Blackadder, Poirot, and Fawlty Towers.
They offer this on top of recent fare like the newest seasons of Doctor Who and recent hits like Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch (who’s now making waves in Hollywood as Doctor Strange).
If you wish to get a more mainstream service, then get Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube Premium, Peacock, HBO Max, or Disney+. It’s more of a niche service like WWE Network, Acorn TV, and the like.
Which Programs Can You Expect from BritBox?
BritBox provides new episodes to British soaps, comedies, and dramas such as EastEnders, Coronation Street, and Emmerdale within hours of their U.K. broadcast care of the “Now” feature to Canadian and U.S. users. U.K. users can catch up with BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub Operator instead.
They also provide archives of older programming such as classic Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, The Office (U.K. version), Upstairs Downstairs, Our Friends in The North, Fawlty Towers, Broadchurch, Poirot, Life on Mars, Midsomer Murders, Only Fools and Horses, The Thick of It, and the like.
The BritBox boasts a user base of 250,000 users within a year of its launch in the U.S. By 2019, the North American subscriber base grew to 650,000 (U.S. and Canada). It’s a niche but a strong dedicated niche.
How Much Does BritBox Cost?
BritBox costs £5.99 a month or you can pay £59.99 per year, which gives you 16% savings. In the U.S., that’s $6.99 a month and $69.99 per year (which also gives you savings). You can avail of BritBox’s free trial in order to test the service out for about a week or 7 days.
After the trial is over and you don’t cancel, you’ll be automatically moved to a rolling subscription of £5.99 or $6.99 a month, which you can pay for the whole year for about £59.99 or $69.99. If you wish to cancel you can cancel at any time but you can’t get a refund for the whole year.
What about BritBox and the License Fee?
BritBox doesn’t take money from the license fee. It’s a platform that’s paid separately from the government funds used to fund the BBC, which also includes any original programming or web series it might have outside of what’s shown on the BBC and ITV as well as Channels 4 and 5.
According to Tony Hall, the BBC’s ex-Director General, the BritBox is akin to buying DVD box sets of classic shows. Any money the BBC makes from the service will go back to making programs. Meanwhile, ITV has a larger BritBox stake. In fact, it owns 90 percent of the service and company.
How Can You Watch BritBox?
You can watch BritBox on your laptop or computer web browser as a subscription streaming site. This means you have to pay for it in order to watch its BBC and ITV archives or box sets. You can also access the service on tablets and smartphones through the BritBox app available for Android OS and iOS.
In particular, Samsung and Panasonic smart TVs support BritBox. Long story short, if you wish to add BritBox to your smart TV, you need to read the manual and add the channel. Otherwise, run the app that should be compatible to most smart devices and PCs, including smart TVs.
If you wish to decide which streaming device works best for you, then try them out yourself. TV offers more ready accessibility for the family while watching via smartphone or PC is more of a personal deal.
Can You Use BritBox Abroad?
Yeah. Kind of. You have to face certain geo-restrictions, of course. You can temporarily use it outside of the U.K., but only within the European Union. It’s currently not possible for U.K. customers to use a U.K. subscription when traveling to North America.
Have a relative or friend avail of BritBox for America or Canada. Even then, you might not get full access to your programming compared to a local U.K. resident.
Where Do We Go From Here?
BritBox is basically Netflix or Peacock for the BBC and ITV, in not so many words. It offers the newest episodes of EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Downton Abbey as well as classics like Mr. Bean and Blackadder.
If you want to avail of BritBox on your smart TV, use the operating system on your TV to connect to the Internet, download the BritBox app, and run the app while getting a subscription to the pay service. You can also get BritBox on Roku TV, Apple TV, Roku Media Players, and the Amazon FireStick.
References:
- “BritBox“, Wikipedia, Retrieved February 10, 2022
- “Britbox review“, Which.co.uk, October 22, 2021
