Major television channels in the UK frequently produce high-quality dramas, comedies and thrillers, only a small minority of which make it to US shores. This is a real shame as there is a mountain of content out there.
However, thanks to two services, BritBox and Acorn TV, you can now get (almost) full control.
Subscribing to both services can be overkill, so you need to know which one is right for you. Which is the easiest to use? Which has the best selection of content? And, perhaps most importantly, which one has more content? Read on to find out.
BritBox is a joint venture between the two largest networks in the UK:BBC and ITV. BritBox went live in March 2017 You can now stream British TV using BritBox You can now stream British TV using BritBox Thanks to BritBox, expats and Anglophiles can now stream British TV to their hearts' content. More information, just three months after the two networks announced the project.
As Soumya Sriraman, president of BritBox, told Fortune at the time:
Acorn TV has been around the longest in 2013. RLJ Entertainment Inc. owns and operates the service. Interestingly, one of RLJ's subsidiaries (Acorn Media Group) has been responsible for distributing UK content in the US since the mid-1990s. It means the developers behind Acorn TV have a solid understanding of what American audiences enjoy watching.
Interestingly, Acorn TV doesn't just specialize in UK shows. It also carries programming from Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The company has deals with some of the biggest producers in those countries, including ITV, Channel 4, BBC Worldwide, All3Media, DRG, ZDF and Content Media Corp.
The content on offer can be divided into six areas:mysteries, dramas, comedies, documentaries, feature films, and foreign language shows. Some of the most famous shows of recent years are available including Doc Martin, Black Books, QI and Hinterland.
Away from the well-known network shows, Acorn TV also creates original content. His most successful original show was an adaptation of Agatha Christie's Poirot in the summer of 2014. The show remains the only production from a niche streaming service nominated for an Emmy Award. Other original series include Agatha Raisin, Close to the Enemy, The Level and Striking Out. Acorn TV also owns the rights to the popular drama series Foyle's War.
Naturally, there is also a bit of “padding”. We can't imagine that many people tune in to shows like The Yorkshire Vet or The World's Most Famous Train.
Finally, Acorn TV also owns the rights to the US premieres of several shows, including The Detectorists, Vera, Inspector George Gently, and Midsomer Murders. If you want to be at the front of the queue for new episodes of these shows, Acorn TV is the answer.
In a sense, BritBox has a narrower focus - it only streams content from the BBC and ITV. On the other hand, those two networks are responsible for most of the quality programming in the UK, so you're getting the best of the best rather than a mix of quality results and irreparable garbage.
There are famous soap operas like EastEnders, crime thrillers like Silent Witness and Waking the Dead, long-running family series like Casualty, and a whole range of famous comedies like The Office (the UK version, naturally) and The Vicar of Dibley. /P>
BritBox also excels at its selection of classic British comedies. 8 British Comedies Every American Should Watch on Netflix 8 British Comedies Every American Should Watch on Netflix watch them on Netflix. Read more . It carries shows like Porridge, Are You Served? And Fawlty Towers, as well as more recent hits like Absolutely Fabulous and Keeping Up Appearances. The service does not provide any BBC America content.
Arguably, quality and quantity are the two most important metrics when thinking about a streaming service. We've covered quality, so what about quantity? After all, you don't want to run out of stuff to watch a few months after signing up.
At the time of this writing, Acorn TV offers over 250 different shows and movies. About a quarter of those are movies and there's a handful of foreign language content too, so you'll have around 200 TV series to get you stuck into.
Many old shows are represented in their entirety. For example, all seven series of Men Behaving Badly are available, as are all nine series of Foyle's War and all 19 series of Midsomer Murders.
BritBox has a similar number of shows. Most of them fall under Drama or Comedy categories.
In short, both services will keep you satisfied for a long time. It's hard to pinpoint the number of programming hours available, but both run into the several thousand.
Note: The number of shows on both services varies slightly from month to month as new shows are added and old ones are removed.
The last of the three key factors in choosing which of these services is for you is the user interface. There's no point in having thousands of hours of shows if you can't quickly find what you want to watch when you want to watch it.
Of these two services, BritBox has the better user interface. Acorn TV takes a "no frills" approach. You will see all available shows in a grid. Clicking on a show will give you a short snippet of information about the series and a link to a trailer (where applicable). You'll find all the seasons and individual episodes further down the page. They use a grid identical to the home page. There is no further subdivision of the content.
BritBox feels more refined. While it's nothing like Netflix, it's clearly borrowed from the streaming giant's pointers. When browsing a particular category, you will find shows broken down into subcategories.
Some users have complained about unreliable search results on Britbox, but it doesn't seem to be a universal problem.
Acorn TV is available in your browser and there are separate apps for iOS and Android. It also works on three set-top boxes:Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV. It is also one of the many apps that allows you to watch TV on a Chromecast 10 Must-Have Chromecast Apps to Watch TV 10 Must-Have Chromecast Apps to Watch TV The Chromecast is possibly the best device currently on the market for all those looking to cast the wire. And you'll definitely need these 10 apps to get started. Read more.
BritBox is also available in your browser, on iOS and Android, and on Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV.
There are a couple of other features (or lack thereof) worth discussing.
First of all, no service allows you to download videos for offline viewing. As such, you cannot rely on the service for long plane rides or extended periods of time in other countries.
Second, neither service supports multiple user profiles. If you have many members in your household, they will all have to look through the same portal.
On the plus side, both apps offer closed captioning on all of their shows.
By reading this article, you may have started to realize that there is very little between the two services. Neither is too weak in any one area, and both have multiple strengths.
As such, your decision can only come down to price. And in this arena, we have a clear winner.
BritBox will set you back $6.99/month, while Acorn TV is only $4.99/month. Plus, Acorn TV offers an annual subscription for $49.99/year, saving you 17 percent over 12 months. BritBox does not offer an annual plan.
Acorn TV and BritBox are available in the United States. Britbox is also available in Canada, although the sample lineup is not the same in each territory.
Additionally, Acorn TV is available in much of Latin America, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.
If you don't live in a supported country, don't panic. Neither company blocks traffic originating from VPNs, so if you have a subscription to a VPN provider, you'll be able to circumnavigate geo-blocking. A Smart DNS provider will also work.
In our opinion, BritBox is slightly better. Yes, there are fewer programs and it costs a bit more, but the quality of the programs is higher and the website is much more pleasant to use.
However, your personal TV preferences will determine much of your decision. If the shows you want to watch are only available on one of the two platforms, it clearly makes sense to subscribe to that service. If you're not sure, sign up for a free trial. Both services will give you seven days with no obligation to continue beyond that.
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