Flixed up

The Times (paywalled) believes the BBC and ITV will announce an joint archive streaming service for the UK next week, to be priced around £5 a month. 

BARB says 11.6m homes already subscribe to either Netflix, Amazon or Now TV - with more than 9 million of them favouring Netflix. There are increasing numbers who subscribe to more than one, and many homes already have Sky or Virgin offerings.

Say 3 million opted for the new BBC/ITV service in the first year. Annual income would be £180m; take off operating costs, advertising fees etc, and the much bigger issue of copyright payments, and you might be looking at £100m, to share 50/50.  The new service devalues UKTV, who in their last full year raised £90m for Auntie, who also received £54m in royalty fees. It's a gamble the BBC needs to get right. Beyond explaining why we need to pay again for programmes we've already funded in previous licence fees.