BritBox to Offer Streaming Bundle with Starz to Boost Signups
The Serpent Queen and Murder Is Easy will be available together in the new BritBox-Starz Bundle
Starz/BritBox
In a surprising move, Lionsgate’s chief executive announced that BritBox and Starz would be partnered as a streaming bundle in the coming months. The news came as part of Lionsgate’s Q1 2025 financial results call on August 8, 2024, presided over by CEO Jon Feltheimer. Feltheimer has been restructuring the company, which is faltering in the streaming wars, first shutting down all streaming service offerings in international territories in 2022, shutting down Starz in the UK and Australia the following year, and finally announcing Lionsgate would divest itself from Starz entirely by the end of 2024.
Starz already bundled itself with Amazon’s MGM+ at the end of last year; this new bundle, meant to juice subscriptions for both services, will be available via the Starz app and, one assumes, as an addition for those who sign up for BritBox. Starz chief Jeffrey Hirsch confirmed the streaming service would create a “very simple and frictionless way for the consumer to put both products together.”
He also suggested this pairing would become the foundation for a larger bundle. Though Hirsh did not say so directly, it seems safe to assume from his statement Lionsgate is (or will be) reaching out to its fellow struggling small-time niche streamers like Acorn TV, Sundance Now, and AMC+ (or MGM+!), hoping they also will see the value of being rolled up with BritBox, who looks to have found solid ground in becoming fully BBC-owned, especially with a new Labour government committed to renewed the British Broadcaster’s charter for another 99 years come 2026.
“BritBox and Starz really overlap in their programming,” Hirsch said. “It’s also a way to get more content that both of our consumers want together, and so we will look to do more of that with our technology. We’re having conversations with other players that align with our programming strategy to really build out the portfolio and to drive churn down and make the whole business better for both of us.”
Despite BritBox's CEO declaring the BBC would make no major changes, the streaming service, made for Anglophiles so they'd stop pirating iPlayer, has beefed up its program offerings since being consolidated under the BBC umbrella. From critically lauded shows like the second seasons of Time, Blue Lights, and The Responder, arriving almost immediately upon concluding in the U.K., to the upcoming debuts of Trigger Point Season 2, The Tower Season 3, and Passenger, BritBox has become the streaming service to subscribe to for lovers of British programming.
For 2025, BritBox already has high-profile arrivals lined up, like Sherwood Season 2, Vera's final season, not to mention more Agatha Christie, this time with a new adaptation of Towards Zero. Meanwhile, Starz has Outlander Season 8 (Part 1), Outlander: Blood of My Blood, and... Outlander Season 8 (Part 2). If it aims to keep those Outlander fans year round, pairing with BritBox really is the wisest move.
BritBox and Starz are expected to announce the full details of their forthcoming bundle (including price) later in 2024.
