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The BritBox Model for OTT Platform Growth

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Learn more about entertainment and OTT at Streaming Media West 2021.

Read the complete transcript of this video:

Chris Pfaff: BritBox in this interesting position because of course you compete with the likes of Acorn and even PBS, but you're far beyond what would have been typical Anglo-philic content from, say, 30 years ago. You're seeing new seasons and you've got such a library of everything from Agatha Christie. What sorts of things have you discovered during the pandemic from an insights perspective, either data, or just a general gut feeling on what has helped you grow?

Emily Powers: I think what's interesting is, yes, Acorn is very focused on British content, and PBS as well, but they do offer other genres. I see a lot of the new streamers getting into the British dramas and mysteries game, because I think there's an agreement that it is better quality, better acting, better storylines. And so there was a lot out there in the market, but what we've done--and what we've especially benefited from over the pandemic--we've become a destination that specializes in this specific type of content that is gaining widespread demand in mainstream media consumption. So at our core, it's in our DNA. Our parent companyies BBC and ITV are the largest producers of this content in the world. And so we're able to have a pipeline of it to begin with.

And then what we've done, especially over the pandemic, is focus on what are the gaps that we see, and focus on originals and commissions in those areas. So we've rolled out a number of new originals and made announcement of new commissions and areas that we think we are already particularly strong in, but will also help us attract and retain our existing audience. An example of that would be a new Agatha Christie adaptation that we're doing with Hugh Laurie as writer and director called Why Didn't They Ask Evans? We know how popular, as you mentioned, the Agatha Christie brand is. How do we do more of that, but also do it in a way that's attractive to new audiences who may not be as familiar with the classic Poirots and Miss Marples? So we're doing some adaptations that have a modern twist, but with very familiar IP to it. And we find that that is extremely successful not only in appealing to our existing audiences, but also bringing in new ones.

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