Doctor Who: BritBox – and its vast collection of Classic Who – could be coming to the UK very soon
By James Aggas
UK fans, you’re going to love this news. The US and Canada streaming service BritBox – home to the largest collection of Classic Doctor Who episodes available for streaming – could be coming to the UK very soon.
For Doctor Who fans in the US and Canada, BritBox has been an absolute gift. While the Classic Series has been widely available on DVD in the UK for a long time, most of which is incredibly cheap to get, things are very different on the other side of the pond.
There are many DVDs of the Classic Series that are incredibly hard to track down in the US and Canada, not to mention extremely expensive. And while the series is becoming available on Blu-ray, we’re still getting just one season every few months. Plus, it can be really expensive to collect every box set. So home media still isn’t the easiest way for fans to enjoy the Classic Series.
This is why BritBox has been something of a huge relief. Containing the highest collection of Classic Doctor Who episodes ever on a streaming service, BritBox has helped to bring the original series to a whole new audience.
With the service featuring literally hundreds of episodes and many entire seasons, it’s certainly more refreshing compared to the small selection of stories fans were given on other streaming services like Netflix. When the Classic Series was included, we would be lucky if we got more than one story per Doctor!
With literally hundreds of episodes of the Classic Series on the service, Doctor Who has certainly been a strong incentive for Whovians to enjoy BritBox.
(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: Radio Times.)
The British invasion (of Britain)
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Of course, one of the most ironic things about BritBox is that it hasn’t been made available to a UK audience. The service was specifically targeted for the US initially, to make overseas shows more widely available, before eventually expanding to Canada. (Which this particular writer has been super grateful for.) So British fans haven’t able to enjoy the service yet.
However, that could change very soon. It’s been announced that the BBC and ITV are in talks to bring BritBox over to the UK. While there’s no specific date of its release just yet, they’re hoping that the service will be launched at some point in the second half of 2019.
Now, there’s no guarantee that this will feature Classic Doctor Who. But it’s certainly promising, and it’ll present the easiest option for fans in the UK to watch the original series, even with so much of it being available on physical home media already.
Honestly, if BritBox in the UK shows the series the same level of support that it’s been given in the US and Canada, this will be a major draw for new subscribers. With a Doctor Who collection that only continues to grow, we’re keeping our fingers crossed for this!
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Are you excited about this development? If you’ve yet to watch the Classic Series, would its availability on BritBox encourage you to watch it? Have you already been enjoying the series on BritBox in the US or Canada? Let us know in the comments below.