Streaming service BritBox will bring British crime drama “The Bay” to its subscribers, as well as the upcoming “Gavin & Stacey” Christmas special.
The streamer, which in North America is an equal joint venture between ITV and BBC Studios, has also landed popular U.K. shows including “Death in Paradise,” which is currently on Netflix in the U.S. but will be exclusive to BritBox in the SVOD rights window. BritBox, which has about 650,000 subscribers, has also scored rights to several live events.
BritBox president Soumya Sriraman announced the new programming at the streamer’s TCA presentation, which featured panel sessions on its original Kelly Macdonald drama “The Victim” as well as “Father Brown” and “Mum.”
“The Bay,” a serialized crime drama in the vein of “Broadchurch,” will be a BritBox original. It stars starring Morven Christie (“Granchester”) and Jonas Armstrong (“Ripper Street”). In the U.K. it went out on ITV and performed well for the broadcaster over its six-episode run. A second season was recently greenlit.
New live or near-live programming coming to BritBox includes coverage of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the annual Royal Variety Performance. BritBox is soon to launch on home turf in Britain, but with a different shareholder structure that sees ITV holding 90% control of the local operation.