British television fans should check out BritBox, especially if you enjoy BBC and ITV programs. BritBox has a deep well of British content, is relatively inexpensive, and doesn't run ads. However, it lacks offline downloads for mobile devices, user profiles, and some basic playback controls. As with other video streaming services, BritBox's content is the most important aspect to consider, so those limitations may not matter to you if you're eager to explore English programs.
What Can You Watch on BritBox?
The BBC and ITV jointly own BritBox, so many of the shows on the platform are from those two channels. Additionally, you get shows from Channel 4 and Channel 5. Acorn TV, another streaming service with British shows, pulls content from more places than just the UK, including mainland European and Oceanic countries. More mainstream services offer British content, too. For instance, Hulu's selection of British shows continues to grow; Amazon Prime is home to the most popular British series, Downton Abbey; and Netflix offers The Crown.
Popular shows on BritBox include Agatha Christie's Poirot, Classic Doctor Who, Midsomer Murders, and Vera. Jonathan Creek, Prime Suspect, Shetland, Silent Witness, The Victim, and Wallander fill out the drama and mystery genres. Want comedy? Check out 8 out of 10 Cats, Fawlty Towers, Rev., The Office (British Version), and Would I Lie to You? Documentary and Lifestyle entries include Harbour Cops; Newscast; Murder, Mystery, and My Family; Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs; Springwatch; This Farming Life; and Winterwatch. Note that some of these shows cross genre boundaries.
By comparison, some popular shows on Acorn TV include Agatha Raisin, The Detectorists, Doc Martin, Finding Joy, Foyle's War, Hamish Macbeth, Hidden, Keeping Faith, Line of Duty, and Midsomer Murders.
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BritBox offers some movies, original shows, and longer specials. Acorn TV also has a small selection of films, but we didn't recognize many of them. If you want to watch movies, Netflix is currently your best option.
BritBox Price and Platforms
BritBox costs $8.99 per month or $89.99 per year. The service offers a free, 7-day trial, but you need to provide a payment method to sign up for it. The service's monthly price is lower than most other on-demand video streaming services, but it's still not the cheapest. Apple TV+ is among the least expensive services we've reviewed at $6.99 per month, though it has a small number of programs. Disney+'s and Hulu's ad-supported tiers are both $7.99 per month. Acorn TV and Paramount+ come in at $5.99 per month. Amazon Prime Video matches BritBox's price, while Netflix's Basic ad-supported plan costs $6.99 per month.
Full-fledged live TV services are more expensive, starting at $20 per month. If you want to watch sports from the UK, such as Premier League matches, check out our roundup of sports streaming services and take note of those that offer international channels, such as Fubo and Sling TV.
BritBox is available on the web; on streaming media devices such as Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku; and on mobile platforms, such as Android and iOS. You can also get BritBox on smart TVs from Panasonic, Samsung, and Vestel brands. However, BritBox lacks native apps for gaming consoles, such as the PlayStation and Xbox. There's an option to subscribe to BritBox through Apple TV Channels or Prime Video Channels to expand its platform support.
The service is currently only available in the US and Canada. Acorn TV is available in more countries, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden. Apple TV and Prime Video are also available in far more places.
BritBox on the Web and Mobile
BritBox has a clean interface, and we did not experience any performance hang-ups when navigating the site. Elements are a cool, calming mix of blues, whites, and grays. The interface isn't crowded either, which we appreciate. There are a few useful navigational conveniences, such as drop-down submenus for selecting specific genres from the main menu and dedicated sliders for selecting a specific season of a show. One annoyance is that BritBox frequently makes you reenter your password before you can access certain account areas, such as the parental control settings or your subscription settings.
From the account section's submenu, you can access your watchlist, change account details, and configure parental control settings. We discuss the watchlist and parental control tools in later sections. The account details section lets you update your account email and password, view your subscription details (assuming you signed up for the service from the web), see your billing history, and opt in to BritBox's newsletter (which is enabled by default).
The Home page highlights programs in a top slideshow, with other categories of content organized below. The categories include Mystery, Comedy, Drama, Doc & Lifestyle, New To BritBox, Popular, and All's Fair. You can click on a show's thumbnail to see a description, select an episode, and add it to your watchlist. For each episode, BritBox includes the summary, release date, run time, parental rating, and whether it supports closed captions and is available in HD. Note that full HD (1080p) streaming is only available on supported smart TVs. Web and mobile streams are capped at 720p, which is a serious limitation BritBox shares with Acorn TV. BritBox has select 4K content, too.
The Explore menu item requires you to select a category (Drama, Mystery, Comedy, Doc & Lifestyle) or choose from a list of popular programming (such as Now, Midsomer Murders, Classic Doctor Who) from the dropdown. Note that the Now section is not live programming, as anticipated, but rather just newly released shows. During testing, Good Morning Britain was the only show that we viewed that released episodes on a daily basis.
Individual category pages highlight shows in a top slideshow and list all of the other shows below in alphabetical order. Additional filter options (such as by original release date or parental rating) would be a useful addition.
The A-Z section contains all the entries in BritBox's catalog. Click a letter at the top of the screen to alphabetically filter programs. Again, given the size of the library, we would prefer more filtering options. The Help section is essentially a long text-based list of FAQs and answers. Other services organize topics better, often with helpful visual guides. The text is small and difficult to read, too. BritBox's search tool is basic, only supporting queries for show names. Genres; actors and actresses; and keywords don't turn up any results. Still, the tool populates suggestions as you type; Acorn TV's tool does not offer suggestions.
We installed BritBox on a Google Pixel phone and had no issues signing in to the service. The mobile app has a similar aesthetic to the web interface and all the account options are accessible, too. You browse the app via the Menu button in the upper left-hand corner. Here, the app displays four icons (Home, Watchlist, Full Listings, Premiers) at the top, with two lines of categories below (one for featured collections and one for genres).
A show's detail page works almost identically to what you see on the web, but there are some improvements. For instance, on a mobile device, the Read More button reveals cast information. We also like that clicking a thumbnail from any of the main sections launches you directly into playback. On BritBox's web interface, this action just takes you to the details page.
BritBox's Playback Experience
BritBox's default video player on the web is annoying in that it is a static, pop-up box. The pop-up element is disruptive from a user design standpoint as it always covers the show's description and the Add to Watchlist button. However, you can still interact with the rest of the interface while it is displayed, which is odd. BritBox needs to do a better job designing the playback experience for the windowed mode.
The playback controls are lackluster, too. Apart from the standard, play/pause button, volume slider, progress bar, and full-screen button, there are only Closed Captioning (CC) settings. Those settings only let you change the size of the font. Acorn TV allows for far greater customization of captions from the player itself, including the font style and color.
BritBox's playback screen is notably missing quick rewind and fast-forward buttons, which is inconvenient. You can scrub along the progress bar to move forward or backward in a show, but you don't get previews of each frame as you do. Plus, you can't control the playback resolution. Many other services also place the play, pause, rewind, and fast-forward buttons in the middle of the screen for easier access. With BritBox, clicking the screen doesn't pause the player (though double-clicking does open the full-screen view).
These limitations are especially apparent on mobile devices. The volume bar on the mobile apps doesn't work independently of the system volume either; tapping that control brings up the regular system controls. We don't see a reason for the volume button to exist at all. At least the playback itself was consistently smooth.
BritBox Features and Accessibility
One of BritBox's biggest limitations is that lacks native downloads for offline viewing on a mobile device. The majority of mainstream video streaming services we've reviewed let you download shows and movies, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and Hulu. Your only workaround is purchasing BritBox as a channel for Amazon, Apple, or Roku, and using the offline download functionality of those services. That said, BritBox lets you enjoy four simultaneous streams.
BritBox supports closed captions for most of its programming, but the only thing you can customize is the font size. No shows support Audio Descriptions either, which are audible narrations of on-screen actions and environments that would otherwise not be discernible from the dialog. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV all offer shows with Audio Descriptions.
You can't create user profiles, which is disappointing. However, BritBox recommends similar shows based on the page you are on.
To set up BritBox's parental controls, click your profile icon, and then select the Parental Controls option. Next, you define a 4-digit PIN. This code is what you enter to bypass or refine any restrictions. Then, select a TV rating level (content up to the ratings in the category are appropriate). Categories include General (TV-G, TV-Y, TV-Y7), Older Kids (TV-PG), Teens (TV-14), and Adults (TV-MA and NR).
One problem with this approach, however, is that restrictions apply to everyone who uses the account. Presumably, a parent would want to be able to watch content on BritBox that would otherwise be inappropriate for younger members of their household. This is another scenario in which profiles would be helpful. Most other video streaming services we've reviewed offer similar parental control tools. Netflix's implementation is among the best since restrictions can be set for each profile.
Using BritBox With a VPN
A VPN can help protect your internet activities, as well as grant access to location-restricted content. Since the BritBox version we reviewed is only available in the US and Canada, people in other countries might consider trying to spoof their location to appear that their connection is located there.
We tried streaming from BritBox with a VPN on both a desktop and mobile device while connected to a US-based Mullvad VPN server. We had no issues watching content on a test Android device and home desktop.
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Top British Shows With Some Limitations
BritBox features programs from two premier British sources, BBC and ITV, which by itself should put the service on the radar for any fans of British television. The monthly price is decent, too. That said, it has unimpressive technical capabilities. For instance, it lacks offline downloads for mobile devices, user profiles, and some basic playback controls. For a video streaming service with better features and a wider appeal, check out Editors' Choice Netflix. For totally free streaming, Tubi is our top pick. Our Editors' Choice picks for live TV services are YouTube TV and Hulu. But for streaming all things British, BritBox gets the job done.
BritBox is the best way to watch BBC or ITV shows in the US and Canada, despite not fully supporting offline downloads and limiting its streaming quality to 720p on mobile and the web.
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