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Soumya Sriraman, president of Britbox USA and Canada, speaks on stage during the Winter Television Critics Association 2019 press tour.
Frederick M. Brown | Getty Images
British broadcaster ITV announced on Friday that its next streaming service with the BBC would be launched at the end of the year and would cost only £ 5.99 ($ 7.50) a month.
Called BritBox, the planned streaming platform is a partnership between the two largest broadcasters in the UK. It will allow them to tackle Netflix and its dominance in online entertainment. ITV shares climbed 2% on news.
The platform will feature programs like "Love Island" and "Cleaning Up" from ITV, as well as old shows such as "Gavin & Stacey" and "The Office" from the BBC. He will also commission a series of original series exclusive to BritBox.
ITV will own 90% of this business, while the BBC will have the opportunity to gradually increase its stake to 25%.
A subscription to BritBox will allow people to watch high definition TV shows on multiple screens and devices, said ITV. The Netflix base package in the UK also costs £ 5.99, but it does not allow users to simultaneously watch multiple screens.
This technically means that it is cheaper than Netflix, which sells its standard multi-screen offering in the UK at £ 8.99 per month. It also reduces the premium on Amazon Prime, which currently costs £ 7.99 per month.
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The news comes in the middle of a bustling live streaming battle in the US, with media giants lining up to compete with Netflix with their own streaming platforms. Disney companies at NBC are preparing to launch their own Netflix competitors.
"Netflix has the most to lose," Paolo Pescatore, a technical and media badyst at PP Foresight, told CNBC. "New vendors will all want to pull their own Netflix programming to differentiate their own offerings."
"For this new service to be successful, more content will be needed from other British TV channels, and there will be much more success and greater consumer appeal."
Netflix recently surprised investors by announcing a growth in international customers below expectations in the second quarter. The company is counting on the latest season of "Stranger Things" to help boost global growth in the number of subscribers over the next quarter.
Disclosure: NBC and CNBC are owned by the Comcast NBCUniversal Unit.
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