BritBox launched in South Africa a year ago and viewers are loving it says CEO Reemah Sakaan.
Bruce Whitfield interviews BritBox CEO Reemah Sakaan on The Money Show.
– BritBox launched in South Africa a year ago, promising to bring viewers “the best of British television”
– Bruce Whitfield interviews the CEO of the relative newcomer to the competitive global streaming environment
There’s been an explosion in the options for streaming choices, and competition among providers is fierce.
It’s a year since BritBox launched in South Africa, bringing you “the best of British telly”.
The viewing mix includes everything from beloved classics to exclusive new series.
The partnership between the BBC and ITV makes perfect sense says BritBox International CEO Reemah Sakaan.
Both of those creative powerhouses in the UK realised that coming together internationally to pull together the largest collection of British you can find anywhere, was a really good idea.
Reemah Sakaan, CEO – BritBox International
There’s a whole host of back catalogues, but a lot of originals as well… and internationally we originate and exclusively bring a new series almost every week.
Reemah Sakaan, CEO – BritBox International
How is BritBox doing in the global streaming leagues where big players like Netflix and Amazon have already carved out their niche?
While the service is only a year old in South Africa, it launched about five years ago in its other markets.
It now has about 2.5 million subscribers, which Sakaan describes as “a fantastic growth story”.
What we know is that once people get into streaming, they really like to add to that, so we see lots of people taking multiple services – perhaps one for their big American series, one for local things, one for British…
Reemah Sakaan, CEO – BritBox International
With far more British shows produced every year than are exported, they have a great creative pipeline to choose from, notes Sakaan.
She says BritBox is intent on fulfilling its promise of being the world leader in British streaming
In South Africa, the most popular streamed show since launch has probably been the adaptation of the Agatha Christie story “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans”, originated by BritBox.
We were very clear that we didn’t want to try and copy what anybody else was doing or try to compete at something we couldn’t really win at, so that gets you to a position that’s very distinctive and authentic… over 100 years of DNA of these collective companies, we know it better than anybody else…
Reemah Sakaan, CEO – BritBox International
We’ve learned that what South African viewers and subscribers really love is that mix… As our service grows, we have more viewers, more minutes… and week on week and every time we launch something new that becomes the new biggest thing.
Reemah Sakaan, CEO – BritBox International
We’re just about to launch a really fantastic true crime called The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe…
Reemah Sakaan, CEO – BritBox International
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