Britflix: BBC may launch Netflix rival

The BBC looks set to introduce a subscription based streaming service as a rival to the likes of Netflix and Amazon after getting the go-ahead in a White Paper on the future of the BBC published last week.

According to The Telegraph, the project which is understood to have the working title "Britflix", is believed to be a collaboration between the BBC and its commercial rival ITV.

The newspaper says that the service is "still in the early stages of development", and would be distributed over the corporation's iPlayer streaming and catch-up service once live.

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The white paper – published last Thursday – has called on the BBC to introduce "some form of additional subscription services" over the next few years, which would inevitably lead to the corporation adopting a new hybrid funding model, taking money from both licence fee payers as well as those who sign up for the additional subscription content.

As such, The Telegraph says that the service has been interpreted as "an assault" on the licence fee, and it could mark "the beginning of the end" for the BBC's established method of funding. The culture secretary, John Whittingdale, as well as "senior BBC sources" have said it was the BBC itself that had requested permission to create subscription-based models.

The library of programmes planned for the service will consist of archive content and BBC shows currently not available on iPlayer, as well as some exclusive original productions much like Netflix's acclaimed House of Cards series. Current BBC programmes won't be hidden behind the pay wall. "It's not like you'd have to pay for a second series of Night Manager", an insider told the paper.

Despite the service being clearly outlined, there's currently no specific timeframe as to when to expect the BBC's subscription streaming package to go online.