Britbox not going 'all in' - but still beefing it up
I had an interesting chat last week with Moira Hogan, the General Manager of Britbox here in Australia.
Britbox has been an area of interest to me with two major events last year: ITV sold off its stake in Britbox International (it wanted to focus on ITVX in the UK) and the BBC ended its output deal with Foxtel.
The assumption that I made was that the BBC would be following the lead of the likes of Disney, and Warner Bros Discovery by just taking their product direct to consumer entirely and supercharge Britbox with all of the BBC content.
That’s not what is happening.
This morning Britbox announced a content and platform expansion in Australia. It’s Britbox doubling down on more exclusive content, but the focus is staying pretty strictly on murder mysteries, cozy dramas (some are cozy murder mysteries), documentaries, and comedy panel shows.
From my interview with Hogan, published this morning at Mediaweek:
“We’re really pleased on BritBox to be the home of first run territory premiere series for Call The Midwife, Silent Witness, Death in Paradise, and we’ve expanded into a bunch of other shows as well. But we’re pretty confident as part of the BBC there’s lots of content to go around, and there’s lots of partnerships that are still there for BBC content to reach.
So, don’t be expecting a supercharged Britbox. But, there’s still quite a lot of good content to be found there and it’s clear the BBC are investing in it quite heavily - they’re just acting a bit more like Paramount+ in Australia where they will also sell off premium titles ad hoc to other services and networks.
Take a moment and read the full interview over at Mediaweek - we go into the new linear channels that Britbox is launching locally and why you won’t see CBeebies on Britbox anytime soon (hint: there’s fewer murders on Hey Duggee than you’d expect).
Marc Maron ending WTF
Last week on the WTF podcast, Marc Maron ended it with a cryptic comment about an announcement coming on Monday’s show. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was going to be about the show coming to an end.
The show has been running for 16 years and I’ve been listening weekly-ish for around 15 of those years. I don’t listen to every episode, but I’d say most weeks I listen to at least one of the two interviews Maron puts out.
He opened the Monday podcast with the announcement, then went into a good chat with comedian John Mulaney where they talked about his decision a bit.
With Maron actively talking on the podcast for the past few years about making a move to Canada (which would effectively mean a WTF retirement… how long can a podcast survive on just Brent Butt and Kids in The Hall interview guests?), hearing him say that he was planning to end the show wasn’t entirely out of left field.
He’s chalked the decision to leave up to burnout. That’s 16 years of two episodes a week on top of everything else he does (stand-up, acting, etc) without any breaks. I’m pretty sure WTF is one of the few podcasts that runs right through the Christmas holiday break each year.
Maron has been pretty adamant about not wanting to do a video version of WTF at a time where every other major interview podcast has embraced video podcasts. I do wonder if Maron recognised that the writing was on the wall.
I don’t know what the metrics are on Maron’s show, but with platforms pushing video ahead of audio, surely it was taking a big bite of the pie. If Maron wasn’t keen on video and numbers were showing a decline, maybe that just helped him make his decision.
#CatAngelsEverywhere
News Desk
Summer Howell and Samantha Sloyan will lead the new Prime Video Carrie series from Mike Flanagan. Read: THR
Mark Hamill has ruled out doing any more Star Wars. It’s not clear whether Disney can keep using his digital likeness, captured for the Mandalorian TV show. Read: THR
Cobie Smulders has joined the season 4 cast of The Lincoln Lawyer. Read: Variety
Major layoffs are underway Monday the Walt Disney Company - several hundred employees impacted globally across finance, marketing for both film and television, and television publicity, casting and development. Read: Deadline
Stan has extended its output deal with Sony Pictures Television. It’ll include the new Outlander spin-off. Read: Mediaweek
Actor Jonathan Joss has been shot to death - the investigation is still ongoing. He was best known for voice work in King of The Hill. Read: Deadline
“They look creepy” is just one of many complaints about the new Bluey LEGO. Read: Brisbane Times
That’s the newsletter for today. Sorry it was a bit late. I neglected to schedule a send time for it.
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